a police officer indicted for fatally hitting a man during an arrest

The victim died after receiving several punches in the face during his arrest in 2023.

A police officer was indicted on Saturday January 11, suspected of having fatally punched a handcuffed 48-year-old man in the face during his arrest in August 2023 in Paris, the prosecutor's office told AFP, confirming a Liberation information.

The peacekeeper, now 28 years old, is being prosecuted for intentional violence leading to death without intention, the prosecution said.

The latter adds in a press release that the accused is “placed under judicial supervision with a ban on coming into contact with his co-perpetrators or accomplices, witnesses to the offense and the victim's family and from carrying out his activity of a police officer on the public highway.

Several punches to the face

The victim was arrested around 3:30 a.m. on August 17 near the Gare de l'Est, after a fight with a screwdriver. Tamer M. had been identified by surveillance cameras in the city of Paris, which showed him taking out a screwdriver before a man grabbed him “by the neck to brutally pull him away”. He himself had received blows from other participants in the brawl.

During the intervention of the police, Tamer M. was held on the ground “after one of the officers was locked in the arm, according to several witnesses who did not notice any apparent injuries on his person”. He was then handcuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle.

The police officer in question then explained that Tamer M. had “hit him in the head” and that he had “pushed him away then (had) punched him several times in the face”.

According to the police officers interviewed in this case, the man then fell asleep during the journey to the police station, “did not wake up when he arrived at the police station, presenting bleeding wounds”, and was then taken at the hospital. His state of coma was then noted there, and he succumbed to his injuries on August 24.

According to the Paris prosecutor's office, the autopsy concluded that he died “from serious craniofacial trauma”. An investigation was then opened and entrusted to the IGPN.