Two investigations opened after the death of a man who received electric shock guns during an arrest

2024-01-05 23:34:09
Police officers handle an electric impulse gun (PIE), in Tours, in December 2016. GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP

What happened between 12:08 a.m. and 12:37 a.m. on the night of Thursday January 4 to Friday January 5 around and inside a small neighborhood grocery store in Montfermeil (Seine-Saint-Denis)? Following his very eventful arrest, a 30-year-old man died of two successive cardio-respiratory arrests after being the target of several shots from electric impulse guns (PIE), generally known as Tasers.

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Transcripts of police radio exchanges that The world was able to consult make it possible to retrace, minute by minute, the sequence of circumstances which led to this death, facts for which the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office opened two investigations, the first entrusted to a local investigation service, the second to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN). These exchanges are concentrated in a very short time, less than half an hour of an eventful intervention inside a convenience store on rue Henri-Barbusse, whose manager dialed 17: a young man, “extremely confused and aggressive”, scares its customers. On site, the police discovered the thirty-year-old haggard, then threatening, and failed to reason with him.

At 12:08 a.m., tired of fighting, they tried to question him but the man, “strong build”, to debate. With one hand handcuffed, he kicked a civil servant in the face and bit him on the hand. In two minutes, he received four PIE discharges in “contact” mode, that is to say by directly applying the end of the weapon to his body, a method implemented as a last resort, when shots from Paralyzing barbs prove insufficient to overcome a recalcitrant individual.

A complete loss. The man once again managed to escape the officials and took refuge in the commercial reserve, a very cramped room. At this time, the police knew that he did not have any weapons and reported this by radio. For ten minutes, they will try to control it and use their PIEs again, with shots – ineffective – and in contact mode.

A weapon that sparks debate

In total, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office informed Agence France-Presse, the PIEs were used a dozen times by six of the eighteen police officers involved. “Without any reaction” on his part, one of them announced on his radio at the time. At 12:23 a.m., the man was finally arrested. Already on site, the firefighters took care of him but, fourteen minutes later, at 12:37 a.m., when the SAMU had joined them, he found himself in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest. He died on the morning of Friday, January 5, at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital (13th arrondissement) where he was transported, his vital prognosis in question.

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