It is not only a media impression, fatal shots by police on drivers of vehicles when they refuse to comply are more and more frequent. In 2022 alone, there are thirteen. After the death of a Guinean in mid-June near Angoulême, the year 2023 is now marked by a new drama of this type after the death of Nahel, 17, killed by a police officer while driving a car yellow, in Nanterre on Tuesday 27 June. In response to criticism, the Ministry of the Interior has always defended the police and argued that they were only protecting themselves from potential danger from the driver.
Gérald Darmanin said on Wednesday that “since the 2017 law, there have been fewer shootings, and fewer fatal cases than before 2017”. However, according to work published in the scientific journal Mindrelayed by Releasefatal shootings by police officers when they refuse to comply have been more numerous but also more deadly since 2017. Between the period 2012-2016 and 2017-2021, researchers establish that these fatal shots on moving vehicles have increased fivefold .
The “Public Security” law in question
This “Public Security” law passed in 2017 authorizes the police to use their weapons “when they cannot immobilize, other than by the use of weapons, vehicles, boats or other means of transport, including drivers do not obey the stop order and whose occupants are likely to perpetrate, in their flight, attacks on their life or their physical integrity or those of others. “A formulation that goes” beyond simple self-defense “, as noted by the general direction of the police in March 2017.
The policeman suspected of the fatal shooting, aged 38, is questioned by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) as part of the investigation into intentional homicide opened by the Nanterre prosecution. His police custody has been extended, we learned on Wednesday from the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.