“The police custody has been lifted and my client has been referred,” his lawyer, Me Ibrahim Shalabi, told a press conference.
“The police custody of the person concerned was lifted this morning with a view to opening a judicial investigation into the counts of attempted intentional homicide of a person holding public authority, aggravated refusal to comply, conduct of a vehicle despite an order to return his driving license, repeated driving while having used narcotics and under the influence of an alcoholic state,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.
“Given the state of health of the person concerned, the investigating magistrate will travel during the day for questioning” to the hospital where the respondent was admitted, added this source.
Himself seriously injured by police fire, this driver was placed in custody on Tuesday while he was already hospitalized.
He is suspected of having refused to comply late Saturday morning in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, when mountain bike officials wanted to check his vehicle twice.
The officials fired nine times, according to the prosecution, hit him in the chest and hit his passenger in the front seat, a young woman born in 2001 who died the next day.
Me Shalabi stressed Thursday that the occupants of the car, who were leaving the party, were not wanted and that the vehicle was blocked by a bus when the police opened fire. “The car could not move,” he said.
Asked about the driver’s state of health, his sister Sonia (first name changed) replied that he was “in bad shape, but his condition is improving”.
“It’s true that my brother had problems with the law, but that does not justify the violence that has been committed,” Sonia continued to the press. “He refused to comply for fear of going to prison (…) for fear that the police would arrest him because he did not have his license”.
“His criminal record does not legitimize the nine bullets fired,” insisted the young woman.
The police custody of the three police officers who used their weapon – two men aged 23 and 32 and a woman aged 31 – was lifted on Tuesday after 48 hours for “continuation of investigations” as part of the judicial inquiry opened on Tuesday.
They are not indicted at this stage.
Several associations called for a rally on Saturday in Paris to demand the repeal of article L435-1 of the internal security code which regulates the use of firearms by the police.
