The family of Cédric Chouviat filed a complaint this Tuesday morning for "intentional violence committed in a meeting by persons responsible for public authority which resulted in death without intention to give it". "The purpose of this complaint is to lead to the opening of judicial information and the rapid appointment of an investigating judge so that he can conduct investigations in full independence," explains Me Arié Alimi, lawyer for the Chouviat family. as well as Me William Bourdon.
Cédric Chouviat, 42-year-old delivery man and father of five children (aged 3 to 21), was riding a scooter on Friday morning near the Eiffel Tower. Controlled at the corner of Quai Branly and Avenue Suffren by a police patrol, he was first fined, it seems because of the use of his phone. Secondly, Cédric Chouviat returns to contact with the police patrol. The tone rises, the insults burst. According to the police intervention report, the latter decided to arrest him for contempt but the delivery boy resisted the handcuffing. It is then taken to the ground to be controlled, always according to this intervention report. It was at this instant that this Parisian by birth, originally from the Porte de Vanves district (Paris, 14th arrondissement), suffered cardiac arrest. Transported to the emergency room, he could not be resuscitated and died at the Georges-Pompidou hospital on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
Cardiac arrest following a lack of oxygen?
During a press conference organized this Tuesday morning at the headquarters of the Human Rights League, three videos filmed by motorists located near the scene were broadcast. On one of them, it appears that Cédric Chouviat, helmet still on the head, is the subject of a ventral plating exercised collectively by three police officers. "Another testimony tells us that Cédric undergoes an arm key beforehand," adds Me. Alimi. These police techniques are not necessarily illegal. “We highlight the danger of this ventral tackle which has caused many deaths in the past, retorts Me. William Bourdon. Furthermore, we dispute the necessary and proportionate characters of this plating taking into account the circumstances of the arrest of Cédric. It is a dramatic police blunder ”. However, the causal link between the police intervention and the death of Cédric Chouviat, which was noted at 3:30 a.m., remains to be determined.
According to the first elements transmitted to the family, the man did not die from the consequences of a heart attack. But as a result of cardiac arrest following a lack of oxygen. The conclusions of the autopsy performed on Monday afternoon are expected in the coming hours. Seized by the Paris public prosecutor's office, the general inspectorate of the national police (IGPN) is continuing its investigation to find the causes of death. Relatives of Cédric Chouviat, stretched out in search of the truth, are going a long way. "I do not hate the national police as a whole but against the police who intervened that day in front of my son, breath Christian Chouviat. I want to tell them that they will not be able to sleep peacefully until we know what really happened ”.