It took seven and a half years of judicial investigation to lead to a dismissal. Tuesday, May 9, the investigating judge in charge of the case of the death of Babacar Gueye pronounced a dismissal, said the public prosecutor Philippe Astruc. The investigating judge found that the police officer from the anti-crime squad who had shot the 27-year-old man had acted in self-defense. The young Senegalese was killed on the night of December 2 to 3, 2015 in the Maurepas district, in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). Armed with a knife, the victim was “threatening” according to the words of the police present at the scene. After the stun gun malfunctioned, one of them fired five times, killing the young man. The policeman who used his weapon said that after the first shot, “the man got up quickly and he still had his knife in his hand”. Before adding: “I climbed quickly” and “the individual climbed quickly towards us”.
Babacar Gueye’s relatives have been fighting since that day to try to make their voices heard. For them, the life of the policeman was not threatened by the attitude of the young man. His family rather evokes a “crisis of dementia” in which Babacar found himself. The police intervened in this building in Guy-Ropartz Square, alerted by residents. In the apartment, the Senegalese had started to scarify his abdominals with a knife, injuring the friend with whom he was spending the evening. When the police arrived, he had left the apartment with a knife in his hand. An investigation opened by the prosecution for “attempted murder of persons holding public authority” was dismissed in July 2016, as was an investigation by the IGPN, the police force.
Ballistic expertise “compatible” with the police version
Last year, the public prosecutor had requested a dismissal in this case, considering that the police officer had fired in self-defense. The prosecution had noted that the ballistic expertise “concluded in particular the compatibility of the versions of the police with the ballistic data”. This dismissal could extinguish the legal proceedings, unless the civil parties decide to appeal.