The passenger of the vehicle whose driver was killed by a police officer at the end of August in Neuville-en-Ferrain after a refusal to comply has been indicted for criminal association, we learned Friday from the Lille prosecutor’s office. In this case, the police officer responsible for the fatal shooting was indicted on August 31 for “willful violence by a person holding public authority with a weapon resulting in death without the intention of giving it” and placed under judicial supervision.
“An open judicial investigation”
The passenger, first hospitalized “under duress”, was then referred to the prosecution “as part of an incidental procedure”, indicted and placed under judicial supervision, said the prosecution. “A judicial investigation was opened in particular on the count of participation in a criminal association with a view to the preparation of an offense punishable by ten years of imprisonment”, he specifies. “Nothing is reproached to him in the context of the facts which led to the death of the driver” insisted to AFP his lawyer Arié Alimi, who also represents the family of the young man killed.
“The charges against him are photos of weapons on his mobile phone, but there is no evidence to date establishing that there was an acquisition or transfer of weapons”, a- he added. This man “has a serious disability, he was hospitalized in psychiatry during his police custody and the alteration of his discernment was established during police custody by a doctor”, he underlined.
Hit and run attempt
On the night of August 30, a police crew wanted to check around 3 a.m. the occupants of the car “equipped with false license plates”, according to the Lille prosecutor, Carole Etienne. The 23-year-old driver then started “abruptly in order to avoid it”. “In the flight, a policeman managed to open the driver’s side door in order to extract the individual and used his weapon once”, killing the young man, according to Carole Etienne.
According to his lawyer, Manon Dugast, the police officer “fully assumes his gesture, convinced that he had no other option”. He was “hit” by the vehicle, “there is a medical finding, he could have been crushed,” she told AFP. “For us there is absolutely no situation of self-defense in this case” and “the indictment of the police officer confirms it for the moment”, Arie Alimi noted to him on Friday.