He shot the intruder five times from his service weapon. A police officer was presented this Monday before an investigating judge in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), as part of “a judicial investigation opened for murder by a person holding public authority”, indicates Éric Mathais, the district Attorney. This 27-year-old civil servant is suspected of having killed, on Saturday, a homeless man who was squatting at his grandmother’s house in Bobigny. The alleged perpetrator had been placed in police custody since Saturday in the premises of the judicial police at 93 (SDPJ). In this specific case, the police, the IGPN, is not competent because the official intervened off duty.
The police officer was called for help by the old lady on Saturday around 6:30 a.m. She complained of having heard “suspicious noises”, specifies a source close to the case. The grandson, who was resting, had moved with his professional weapon, as he is authorized to do.
He claims that the individual “was aggressive”
In an outbuilding, a sort of shed, the plainclothes police officer allegedly found himself facing an individual who, according to his version, “was aggressive and threatened him with an object that he took for a weapon,” the same source continued. Then he fired seven times in his direction. Five bullets hit the victim, who died immediately.
At first, the officer allegedly called a police crew for backup. Then, a few minutes later, he allegedly called his colleagues back to warn them that he had “fired his weapon seven times, hitting the individual five times,” explains a person familiar with the case.
The victim was a street cigarette seller
Instead of a weapon, the victim was holding a DIY tool in his hands, in this case a putty gun for making joints. The deceased was a man in his thirties, originally from Algeria and in an irregular situation. According to another source, he had found refuge for “several days” in this garden shed. According to our information, he had never entered the house and had not committed any physical violence against the old lady. He was identified as a street cigarette seller.
At the end of his police custody, the prosecution requested that the police officer be placed under judicial supervision. But the investigating judge referred the matter to the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD) because he considered that it was more appropriate to place him in pre-trial detention for a better progress of the investigation. The accused belongs to the territorial traffic and road safety company of 93.
