Five years after the controversial police operation during the Music Festival on the banks of the Loire in Nantes, police commissioner Grégoire Chassaing will be tried from June 10 to 14 in Rennes for “manslaughter” after the death of Steve Maia Caniço.
“The trial of the police commissioner referred to the Rennes Criminal Court to respond to the facts of involuntary homicide to the detriment of Steve Maia Caniço will be held from Monday June 10 to Friday June 14, 2024,” indicated the Rennes public prosecutor. Philippe Astruc, confirming information from Press-Ocean. At the end of December, the Rennes public prosecutor’s office announced that the police commissioner was referred to the criminal court, unlike the sub-prefect Johann Mougenot and others implicated in this case, including the former prefect of Loire-Atlantique Claude d’ Harcourt, who had benefited from a dismissal of the case.
An “exceptional” hearing duration
“The family of Steve Maia Caniço is very relieved that this hearing can be quick after several years of investigation,” reacted lawyer Cécile De Oliveira. “The duration of the debates suggests technical questions which will be debated between witnesses, experts and obviously Grégoire Chassaing, defendant, who will be questioned,” she added, highlighting an “exceptional” hearing duration for a criminal case with only one defendant.
Steve Maia Caniço, a 24-year-old after-school entertainer, disappeared after a police operation intended to stop an electro evening in Nantes, on the banks of the Loire, on the night of June 21 to 22, 2019, sparking very strong emotion and strong criticism on the intervention of the police. Saying they felt threatened and were victims of projectiles, the police fired 33 tear gas grenades, 12 defensive bullets (LBD) and ten de-encirclement grenades.
Witnesses reported being blinded by a cloud of tear gas. Seven people fell into the Loire during the police intervention, not counting Steve, whose body was only found on July 29, a little over a kilometer away.
The commissioner will plead for acquittal
Analysis of Steve’s phone records made it possible to place his fall in the Loire at “4:33:14 a.m., i.e. at the time of the police intervention and after the first use of tear gas grenades which took place at 4:31 a.m. », According to the prosecutor’s press release sent at the end of December. Commissioner Chassaing, who directed the operation, “implemented progression and arrest operations on the quay, without immediately prohibiting the significant use of weapons which was taking place, even though the investigations made it possible to demonstrate that “other solutions were possible, notably that of a withdrawal,” according to the same source.
“This choice to immediately take this situation into account by inappropriate means with regard to the situation of the premises appears to constitute a clear fault having contributed to the fall in the Loire and the death of Steve Maia Caniço,” the prosecution further estimated. .
The policeman’s lawyer, Louis Cailliez, indicated that he would plead for acquittal “because my client is not criminally responsible for this tragedy and the elements constituting involuntary homicide have not been characterized”. “We trust the justice system to calmly apply the law far from the regrettable media untruths which have unjustly tarnished its honor in recent years,” he added.