NICE. A man died in Nice on September 7 during a police intervention during which a policeman opened fire. He was driving a car reported stolen and refused to comply during the police check.
[Mis à jour le 8 septembre à 12h16] A new refusal to comply slipped, in Nice this time. On Wednesday, September 7, a police officer opened fire on the driver of a car arrested for a police check. The man in the vehicle was hit and died after suffering cardiac arrest. According to the account of the facts of the public prosecutor Maud Marty and information from Nice morning, the tragedy occurred around 4:30 p.m. on the public highway. The road safety brigade chased a vehicle whose driver was driving at risk and was multiplying the “zigzags” on the road. “Stuck in the flow of traffic”, the driver turned around, finding himself face to face with the police car which he hit “on two occasions” slightly injuring two police officers. It was during this face to face that one of the police officers got out of his vehicle, pointed his weapon and fired “only once” according to the prosecutor. The scene was captured by videos that the Nice newspaper obtained.
The video of the refusal to comply in Nice
Video shows the fleeing driver in the visible gray SUV being caught and facing the road safety squad vehicle. Faced with the police, he tries several times to flee by hitting the police car but remains blocked. It was during a new start of the SUV that the police officer near one of the windows of the vehicle fired.
The video does not make it possible to distinguish what is happening inside the passenger compartment of the gray car. After the arrest, the police were able to identify the driver of the car. It was a man of Tunisian origin and in his thirties, settled in the region for a year”, according to the indications of Anthony Borré, first deputy mayor of Nice at theAFP. “He was driving without a license on board a stolen vehicle registered in the Var”, he added.
Who is the policeman who shot?
The policeman who fired the shot is a 23-year-old civil servant, according to the statements of Laurent Martin de Frémont, the departmental secretary of the SGP Police Unit who was questioned by BFM Nice Côte d’Azur. The union representative adds that the policeman “fired to protect his colleague”. “The police do not kill, the police defend themselves” also reacted the police union to Nice morning. Laurent Martin de Frémont finally said he was worried about the shooting policeman who was taken away by the firefighters with the facts. The young police officer would have been placed in police custody in the hours which followed the facts and would still be auditioned this Thursday, September 8 according to information from RTL.
Two open investigations
Only hours after the refusal to comply, the public prosecutor Maud Marty announced the opening of two investigations. One was entrusted to the criminal brigade of the Departmental Security for attempted homicide on a person holding public authority in addition to refusing to comply and concealment of stolen vehicle. According to initial information, the vehicle driven by the deceased man was reported stolen. The General Inspectorate of the National Police has been seized of the second investigation and must “determine in what circumstances the shooting occurred”. As part of the first investigation, the passing vehicle was taken into custody.