Commissioner Grégoire Chassaing, the only person prosecuted for the death of Steve Maïa Caniço in 2019, was acquitted on Friday, September 20 by the Rennes Criminal Court. The young man drowned in the Loire after a highly criticized police intervention during the Fête de la Musique in Nantes (western France).
4 mins
He will ultimately not be convicted for the death of Steve Maïa Caniço, disappeared after a police intervention during the Fête de la Musique on June 21, 2019. Commissioner Grégoire Chassaing was acquitted on Friday, September 20. The French justice system ruled that he had not committed any ” serious fault ” which could have led to Steve falling into the Loire. The prosecution, for its part, had demanded during the hearing in June the unambiguous conviction of the 54-year-old police officer.
It’s him ” which led to class action, which created the situation that ultimately resulted in Steve’s death. “, a 24-year-old after-school group leader, said prosecutor Philippe Astruc. He then simply asked: ” a principled sentence “, without setting a quantum.
Prosecutor Astruc also deplored the fact that Commissioner Chassaing was the only one to find himself in the dock for Steve’s drowning, ” which was not the option defended by the public prosecutor “. Several personalities had been placed under the status of assisted witness or indicted during the investigation, including the prefect at the time and the mayor of Nantes. This was before the case was dismissed.
At the hearing, the public prosecutor had indeed found mitigating circumstances for the commissioner in charge of securing the site: the police officers under his orders had on their own initiative launched around ten tear gas grenades in response to projectiles being thrown by the ” partygoers “They refused to let the music from the sound systems stop at the agreed time, 4 a.m.
Called to testify, police officers assured that they had acted ” in self-defense “, without any instructions being necessary, recalling the tensions created at the time by the “ yellow vests »This was followed by a crowd movement which caused five people to fall into the Loire, including Steve Maïa Caniço, who could not swim and, according to his relatives, had a phobia of water since childhood.
Also readIn the news: emotion and unease after the death of Steve Maia Caniço
” Impeccable » ?
The defence of the 54-year-old commissioner, now head of the district in Lyon, had called for his acquittal, with Mr Louis Cailliez asking the three magistrates not to ” add injustice to everything that happened that night “, on the night of June 21 to 22, 2019. According to his lawyers, Mr. Chassaing did not commit the faults alleged by the prosecution: ” at no time “he did not show any desire to fight the DJ who had turned the sound back on despite his requests, and” he cannot prevent the individual reaction of his men ” who fire tear gas grenades in response to the projectiles. ” I haven’t mastered everything “, the official admitted during the trial, but ” which would have been irreproachable in such conditions ? “.
Steve’s family’s lawyers point out that ” a succession of failures of forecasting, imprudence, lack of anticipation (Who) led to this tragedy ” She believes that the police were ” in a way ” left to their own devices that evening.
The investigation determined that Steve’s fall occurred at a point on the quay without a barrier at 4:33 and 14 seconds, precisely, two minutes after the first grenade shots were fired by the police. Caught in a thick cloud of tear gas smoke, several party-goers fell 5 to 6 meters into water at 21°C. Some were picked up by a water rescue boat, specially designed for the night. But Steve Maïa Caniço was unable to reach the quay. Despite the searches undertaken, Steve’s body didn’t reappear until a month laterdiscovered by the pilot of a river shuttle.