Wednesday around 7:30 p.m., in Cesson-Sévigné, in Ille-et-Vilaine, a woman who was in a restaurant “activated her + serious danger telephone + because her ex-companion, who was harassing her, was nearby” , indicated a police source.
The Rennes public prosecutor’s office specifies that this phone was given to this woman, aged 39, in August 2023 to protect her against her ex-partner. This man “supposed to live in the Paris region” had been convicted several times for violence or threats against him but also for several violations of his ban on contact, said the prosecution.
“At the insistence of this man, she had however agreed for several weeks to speak to him, then to meet him, while he was also banned from appearing in the department” of Ille-et-Vilaine, added Deputy Public Prosecutor Sébastien Farges.
Wednesday evening, this woman said she triggered her phone in order to put an end to the contacts that her ex-partner was imposing on her. The police then intervened in less than ten minutes.
No pursuit
Named by the victim, “the man fled on foot” towards a hotel located behind the restaurant, pursued by the police. He took refuge in the hotel’s fire escape and then pushed the police, who used their taser-type electric pulse gun twice.
“However, the barbs of the weapon only very partially reached the body of the fugitive due to his clothing, and the effect was very short-lived. The man was able to quickly regain his composure” and fled towards the ring road, explains the prosecution. He crossed a first series of lanes then the central reservation before being “moved down by a motorist […] who could do nothing to avoid it. He died instantly.
“The elements and testimonies collected are all consistent and unambiguously confirm the statements of the police: at no time did the police pursue the accused from the hotel” and “in no case did they continue their action in conditions endangering human life.
The Rennes public prosecutor’s office emphasizes that neither the victim nor the three motorists who witnessed the fatal accident saw police officers chasing the man at any time.
“There is no surveillance camera in operation at the places where the events took place, but the chronology of the events, the timestamp of the electric pulse guns” and the other elements collected “make it possible to validate the precise sequence of events. circumstances leading to the flight and then to the death.”