An unprecedented decision was taken by the Nanterre prosecutor’s office on Thursday June 29. The police officer implicated in the death of 17-year-old Nahel M., killed during a traffic check, has been indicted and remanded in custody, which is a first. Since 2022, fifteen people have been killed by the police, in thirteen different cases of refusing to comply during a traffic check, according to a count made from media sources.
Of the thirteen cases of refusal to comply which had a fatal outcome, and which we identified, only eight led to the indictment of the police officer in question. This is the case in cases that occurred in 2022 in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) in March, in Neuville-en-Ferrain (Nord) in August, in Nice in September, in Paris in October, April and June, and in 2023 in Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente (Charente) in June and finally in Nanterre on June 27.
One of the common points of these cases of refusal to comply is that they are often quite documented, with videos of witnesses making it possible to clarify the context of the traffic stop which led to the murderous shooting, as for the death of Nahel M.
In Sevran, for example, the investigators estimated, after consulting recordings, that “no apparent danger [was] visible on the video at this precise moment”, which contradicted the defense of the police who said they had used their weapon after feeling threatened. The policeman was finally indicted for willful violence resulting in death, and placed under judicial supervision.
In Nice, a video that went viral showed the car of a controlled man, blocked by a police vehicle in a street after a chase. As the driver engaged the reverse gear, the police officer located at the front of the vehicle shot at him through the window. After investigation, he was indicted for intentional violence having caused death without intention to give it and placed under judicial supervision.
After the death of Nahel M., the police officer was indicted on June 29 for “intentional homicide”, which was only the case in two other cases. On June 28, another indictment for the same reason was pronounced by the Angoulème prosecutor’s office against a police officer accused of having shot Alhoussein C., who had tried to escape being arrested during a traffic check, in Charente, June 14.
On April 28, 2022, a 24-year-old police officer was also indicted for intentional homicide for the death of two people after a refusal to comply, on the Pont-Neuf, in Paris. He had been placed under judicial control with obligation of care.
“If the bullet that killed my daughter hadn’t been fired by a police officer, would the investigation move any faster?” “wondered, in April 2023 on Franceinfo, the mother of Rayana, 21, killed on June 4, 2022 during a police check that went wrong, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. His daughter was a passenger in the vehicle. She regretted that the three police officers implicated had still not been heard by the investigating judge, ten months after the events. It was not until June 6, 2023 that the police officer in question was indicted for “willful violence with a weapon”. The case is not yet over.
The length of case processing is a recurring problem. On August 19, 2022 in Vénissieux (Rhône), two men aged 26 and 20 died during a traffic check. The police officers who fired say they acted in self-defense, but witnesses dispute their version. The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) is seized for “willful violence by persons holding public authority resulting in death without intention to give it”. The two police officers are placed under the status of assisted witnesses. The investigation has been stalled ever since.
Same feeling of slowness in Grenoble for the family of Inès, 18, shot dead while she was a passenger in a vehicle caught in a chase with the police on October 5, 2022. A procedure for attempted homicide is in progress against the driver. The procedure entrusted to the IGPN is dragging its conclusions.
It also sometimes happens that the investigation quickly comes to an end, and that it agrees with the police officers involved. In Rennes, on September 7, 2022, a 22-year-old woman, again a passenger in a vehicle, was killed during an anti-drug operation. A month later, the procedure was closed without further action. According to the IGPN investigation, the police officer was acting in self-defense.
