He shot the intruder five times with his service weapon. A police officer was brought before an investigating judge in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) on Monday, as part of “a judicial investigation opened for murder by a person in a position of public authority”, says Éric Mathais, the public prosecutor. 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 in police custody since Saturday in the premises of the 93 judicial police (SDPJ). In this specific case, the police of the police, the IGPN, is not competent because the civil servant was intervening off duty.
The police officer had been called for help by the old lady on Saturday around 6:30 a.m. She complained of hearing “suspicious noises,” said a source close to the case. The grandson, who was off duty, had moved, armed with his professional weapon, as he has permission to do.
He claims that the individual “was being 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 caulking 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 taken 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 vendor of cigarettes.
At the end of his police custody, the prosecution requested that the police officer be placed under judicial supervision. However, the investigating judge referred the matter to the judge of liberties and detention (JLD) because he considered that it was more appropriate to place him in provisional detention for the better progress of the investigation. The accused belongs to the territorial company of traffic and road safety of the 93.
