After his placement in police custody, the police officer responsible for the fatal shooting on Wednesday of a motorist in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) will be presented to justice for an indictment, indicates the local prosecution this Friday afternoon.
"A flagrant investigation of the head of intentional homicide has been entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN)", recalls the public prosecutor of Nice Xavier Bonhomme in a press release.
"A judicial investigation is opened today on this count to determine, in a contradictory manner and under the authority of an examining magistrate, the exact circumstances of the shooting which led to the death of the driver in the vehicle", continues the press release.
The placement under judicial supervision of the police officer who fired the shot will be required by the prosecution, specifies Xavier Bonhomme.
The 23-year-old police officer and deputy in a road safety brigade was taken into custody on Wednesday evening after a fatal shooting around 4:30 p.m. in the west of Nice.
The man targeted by the shooting was driving without a license in a stolen vehicle.
A controversial video
According to the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP), the police had signaled to the driver of the vehicle "zigzagging dangerously" to follow them, but the latter had accelerated.
The driver had refused to stop to submit to a traffic check, had fled on an avenue in Nice, then had turned around on the public road and hit the police vehicle which had chased him, details the press release from the public prosecutor.
The 24-year-old driver of the vehicle died on the spot "after an attempt by the firefighters to revive him", continues Xavier Bonhomme.
For the relatives of the victim, "it is obvious that we have (case) a homicide, there is no discussion on it", declared Thursday one of their lawyers, master Sefen Guez Guez.
VIDEO.
Fatal shooting in Nice after a refusal to comply: the police officer in custody
According to videos posted Thursday on social networks, the driver, blocked by a police car in front, had reversed before trying to disengage and restart.
But he was again blocked by the police car in front.
It was at this moment that the police officer, gun in hand and standing near the vehicle, fired through the driver's side window.
The passenger also prosecuted
Asked about these videos Thursday on Franceinfo, the director general of the national police, Frédéric Veaux, estimated that “in a case like this, it is the whole of the action which must be analyzed.
What happened before, in the environment.
The perception that the police may have had at the time of the intervention”.
Read alsoRefusal to comply: “It is up to the police officer to adapt his behavior to the situation”
Two investigations were opened in this file: a first, entrusted to the Departmental Security, for attempted homicide on a person holding public authority, a second, by the IGPN, the police force, for intentional homicide by the policeman, shooter.
The 26-year-old passenger in the vehicle was also presented to justice on Friday “with a view to his indictment for concealment of aggravated theft” after being in police custody for “attempted homicide on a person holding the public authority, concealment of theft and refusal to comply".
The prosecution requires his placement in pre-trial detention, “to guarantee his continued availability to justice”.
