A judicial investigation has been opened for willful violence resulting in death without the intention of giving it, added the source, specifying that the prosecution had requested the placement under judicial control of the police officer.
His lawyer declined to comment.
The qualification of intentional homicide by a person holding public authority, retained by the Paris public prosecutor’s office during the opening of the preliminary investigation on Friday, was abandoned in the light of the exploitation of video surveillance, the findings and statements by police officers.
The police custody of the second police officer, aged 31 and who had also opened fire, was however lifted without prosecution at this stage, according to the judicial source.
“My client thought he was going to die, he is very tested,” reacted to AFP his lawyer Thibault de Montbrial.
“The police do not shoot when they refuse to comply, but when, when they refuse to comply, the driver tries to harm their physical integrity”, recalled the council.
The two police officers had been placed Friday evening in police custody in the premises of the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), in charge of the investigation.
A few hours earlier, around 7:00 p.m., in the 12th arrondissement, the two police officers had used their service weapon when a vehicle they wanted to check started when they were coming up to it, the judicial source said.
“One of the three shots hit the driver who died,” she explained.
According to a video visible on TikTok, the police tried to revive the victim by performing cardiac massage.
Two men who were in the car fled on foot. They had not been arrested on Sunday.
A second investigation for attempted murder of a person holding public authority, entrusted to the judicial police, was opened on the conditions of the refusal to comply.
Since the beginning of the year, twelve people have died after police fire in the context of refusing to comply.
