Move along, nothing to see. The two LBD shots carried out by gendarmes riding quads in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) at the end of March are in accordance with “self-defense” and the soldiers have committed “no fault”, writes the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) in a report posted Wednesday on the website of the Ministry of the Interior.
These two shots, carried out by gendarmes from a motorized intervention squad (PM2I), and whose images broadcast on social networks had sparked controversy, “were carried out during the most critical phase of the operation. law enforcement,” IGGN noted in its report. The latter was sent to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, by the director general of the national gendarmerie, Christian Rodriguez on April 4.
A “situation of proven danger”
Even if shooting LBDs on the move is “proscribed”, as the DGGN reminds us in a letter accompanying the report, “no fault can be found” against the two soldiers since the two shots were fired “in the justified framework of the self-defense of oneself and of others” which “supersedes” the ban on shooting on the move.
These shots, one stationary and the other while driving, took place in a “situation of proven danger” for the gendarmes, while a “group of “black blocks” completed the encirclement” of these last, continues the IGGN. The shots are fired in “self-defense situation”, “in the face of dangerous, determined individuals and reiterating violence”, adds the inspection, which relied in particular on the recordings of the soldiers’ pedestrian cameras.
The gendarmes “never tried to conceal” the shootings and “immediately reported it to their hierarchy”, observes the IGGN. “In view of these elements, it seems to me that our soldiers acted with professionalism, proportionality and discernment”, adds Christian Rodriguez in his letter.
The March 25 demonstration in Sainte-Soline against the “megabasins” brought together 6,000 to 8,000 people according to the authorities, 30,000 according to the organizers. The latter reported 200 injuries, including 40 serious, on the protesters side – a man still between life and death.