The policeman who shot Souheil El Khalfaoui, 19, on August 4, 2021 in Marseille during a roadside check, made "regulatory use" of his weapon.
Here is the conclusion of the investigation conducted by the police, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
This investigation carried out by the IGPN for “voluntary homicide” was closed in December, moreover indicated the prosecutor of Marseille Dominique Laurens, confirming the information from the Actumarseille site.
It aimed to “determine the conditions of the opening of fire by one of the police officers”.
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According to the police, Souheil El Khalfaoui was shot dead while trying to escape a traffic check.
The young man was in a parked vehicle when police officers approached to check him and he reversed, hitting a police officer.
Still according to the police, a peacekeeper had used his weapon at the level of the door, fatally hitting the young man while he was making a new maneuver to leave.
This control had been carried out the day after a first control which Souheil El Khalfaoui allegedly refused to comply with.
"In the exercise of their functions and wearing their uniform or external and apparent insignia of their quality, the police and gendarmes can use their weapons in case of absolute necessity and in a strictly proportionate way", specified a source. close to the file, citing article L 435-1 of the internal security code: this is the case "when attacks on life or physical integrity are brought against them", specifies this article.
The family contests the facts
But Souheil's family refutes the version of the police, assuring that, according to several witnesses, he had not been aggressive towards the police and had not tried to leave.
"We weren't very surprised, that's usually what happens," reacted Souheil's aunt, Samia El Khalfaoui, after the verdict of the IGPN.
Another investigation, entrusted to the judicial police, is still in progress, relating "to the conditions in which the deceased young man" used his vehicle "against the police officers carrying out the check".
In the meantime, the family has called on two new lawyers, Arié Alimi, present in numerous legal cases between police and citizens, and Raphaël Kempf.
This drama had aroused strong emotion in the popular district of Belle-de-Mai, where it took place.
The young man's family had gathered several white marches to demand "the truth" about Souheil's death.