VENISSIEUX. Two police officers opened fire after refusing to comply in Vénissieux on the night of August 18. Both occupants of the car died. Two investigations, including one from the IGPN, have been opened.
[Mis à jour le 20 août 2022 à 13h52] On the night of Thursday August 18 to Friday August 19, 2022, police opened fire on a car after a refusal to comply in Vénissieux. The passenger died a few minutes after the intervention of the police. The driver, injured in the head “died as a result of his injuries, late yesterday evening, at the Lyon Sud hospital”, said the Lyon prosecutor’s office, Saturday morning August 20. Thursday night, uA patrol of the specialized field brigade (BST) had spotted a vehicle reported stolen in the parking lot of a shopping center and had wanted to check the two occupants, the individuals had refused to comply and ran into the four police officers. After the failure of a first attempt to immobilize the vehicle, two police officers opened fire several times.
The case is already the subject of two investigations to investigate the behavior of the occupants of the vehicle, known as delinquents, and to investigate the use of weapons by the police. In the altercation, a police officer was slightly injured in addition to the two men who tried to escape the police. Two sections of CRS 8, a unit specializing in maintaining order and combating urban violence, were deployed to Vénissieux on Friday August 19 to be deployed on site this evening. The decision comes directly from the Ministry of the Interior to prevent possible unrest.
What is the sequence of events?
According to the police account, the four law enforcement officers wanted to check a suspicious and reported stolen car, stationary but with the engine running in a parking lot. As the police approached, the driver started the vehicle and engaged “reverse then forward” heading straight for the police. As it passed, the vehicle struck and threw an official on the front bonnet of the car and then on the ground. The police first tried to immobilize the vehicle by deploying a portable stop stick harrow, in vain. It was only after this attempt and when the policeman was hit that two officers opened fire on the car which stopped its course a hundred meters away.
The driver died Friday night from head injuries. The passenger, meanwhile, died of his injuries a few minutes later despite the rapid intervention of the emergency services. The 26-year-old driver was transferred to the emergency room and is “brain dead” according to Progress. A policeman with minor leg injuries was also taken to hospital.
The IGPN opens an investigation
The Lyon prosecutor’s office announced on Friday August 19 that two police investigations have been opened. The first “for concealment of theft, aggravated refusal to comply and violence with a weapon against law enforcement officers” was entrusted to the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP). It is the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) which is responsible for the second investigation for “violence with a weapon by persons holding public authority which resulted in death without intention of giving it”. A decision that follows the procedure provided each time a law enforcement officer uses his weapon. The two police officers who fired are currently in police custody and heard on the circumstances of their shootings in the premises of the IGPN in Villeurbanne.
“The police will have to answer for the use of their weapon and that’s normal,” said Gérald Darmanin this Friday, August 19 on the sidelines of a trip to Corsica, a few hours after the opening of the investigation. IGPN on the shootings of law enforcement officers in Vénissieux. Refusing to comment on the case, the minister however recalled his support for all the gendarmes and police officers in France.
When are the police allowed to use their weapons?
The IGPN investigation must shed light on the circumstances in which the police used their weapon and determine whether this use was justified or not. The law provides for several situations which authorize the opening of fire but each time it is necessary to prove that the recourse to weapons is an “absolute necessity and […] strictly proportionate”.
When the police are faced with a refusal to comply, they have the right, in accordance with article L435-1 of the Homeland Security Code, to open fire only if the individual who refuses to stop uses his vehicle as a weapon and threatens the police. Still, the shots must have the sole purpose of immobilizing the vehicle. It is then the notion of self-defence that is evaluated and makes it possible to justify or not the recourse to arms. The IGPN investigation must in particular determine whether the police were in a situation of self-defense in Vénissieux. Note that the behavior of the 26-year-old driver who did not just run away but ran into the police is a first explanation for the opening of fire by the police.
Offenders known to the police
The two individuals who were in the vehicle are “very unfavorably known” to the police, said Gérald Darmanin on August 19. Some of their criminal records have been revealed, the deceased passenger was known for theft and concealment while the driver who is still in very critical condition has already been involved in armed robbery but also burglary and drug trafficking .
Despite these details, the identity of the two occupants of the vehicle has still not been released to the media and the information is trickling down. The 26-year-old driver suffered serious head injuries and was said to be “brain dead” Progress while the passenger, a 20-year-old man, died. He succumbed to his injuries despite the cardiac massage performed by the emergency services. The local newspaper adds that one of the men is from Villeurbanne.
The wounded police officer “traumatized”
The injured law enforcement officer is “traumatized” according to the words of his lawyer, Me Laurent Bohé, contacted by BFM Lyon. A trauma due both to the shock received when the car hit him but also to the use of his weapon. “This is the first time he has used his service weapon,” said the lawyer, who added that his client is a specialist in “this type of intervention which can be sensitive”. Despite the shock, the policeman is only slightly injured in the legs. Still, his injuries earned him the prescription of two days of temporary incapacity for work according to Me Bohé.