The three police officers, two men and a woman, have been interviewed since Sunday afternoon at the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN, the French “police of the police”) for “violence with a weapon by a person holding public authority “.
“This measure is taken because of the seriousness of the consequences of the shots made and in order to verify the conditions of use of their weapons”, explained the prosecution. Their custody can last up to 48 hours.
The passenger had been shot in the head. AFP learned of his death on Sunday evening from his injuries, from a source close to the investigation.
These facts come a month and a half after the indictment for “voluntary homicide” of a police officer, suspected of having killed on the night of April 24 to 25, with an automatic weapon, the driver and the front passenger of a car that would have forced a check on the Pont-Neuf in Paris.
This new check during which police officers used their weapons took place late Saturday morning in the 18th arrondissement, in the north of the capital.
ATV officials first noticed “a car with four passengers, one of whom was not wearing his seatbelt,” a police source said on Saturday.
As they approach it, the car “takes off at very high speed” and a little further, while the police again try to control it, the driver starts and “rushes on the crew of police at ATV,” according to the police account.
The officials then “use their weapons” several times and seriously injure “the driver and the passenger” in the front, who are both taken to hospital, according to the police source.
The two rear passengers, a man and a woman, were not injured and were questioned by investigators, said a source familiar with the matter.
Two investigations were opened, one entrusted to the IGPN targeting the police, the other to the Paris judicial police targeting the occupants of the car for attempted homicide on persons holding public authority.
“Some of the occupants are known to the (police) services. They say they have consumed alcohol and cannabis,” reported another source familiar with the matter.
“Another unacceptable abuse of power. The death penalty for refusing to comply. The prefect approves? The minister congratulates? When is shame?” Tweeted the leader of France Insoumise (extreme left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, one week before the first round of the legislative elections.
The vital prognosis of the driver, aged 38 and hit in the chest, was no longer engaged on Sunday evening.
