The chase ended very badly. A 22-year-old man was found drowned in Poitiers during the night from Sunday to Monday after trying to escape the police at the wheel of a stolen car, we learned from the prosecution. The facts occurred during a check carried out by the anti-crime brigade (BAC), from which the driver of this vehicle reported stolen escaped, two police sources told AFP, confirming information from the Actu17 site.
The motorist backed up, hitting a scooter behind him at a red light, before fleeing. The scooter rider was slightly injured, according to a police source. The fleeing vehicle was then found stopped on the banks of the Clain, the river which crosses Poitiers, where the police arrested the three passengers, a man aged 24 and two young women aged 22. years.
Found lifeless in water
These police officers then heard splashing noises “which could correspond to the progression of another person in the river”, according to the prosecution, and notified the emergency services. “The fire divers who were dispatched to the scene found an inanimate body a few tens of minutes later. Resuscitation [du conducteur] by the SAMU remained in vain,” said the public prosecutor in Poitiers, Cyril Lacombe, in a press release.
An investigation was opened to “search for the causes of death” of this young man aged 22 and residing in Poitiers. The investigations were entrusted to police officers from the Vienne departmental security and an autopsy will take place on Thursday, the prosecutor said.
Furthermore, the three passengers were placed in police custody as part of an investigation opened for receiving a stolen vehicle, refusal to comply and hit and run, entrusted to the Poitiers police station.