While the agent who shot a man with a knife in 2021 was exonerated by the Vaud Public Prosecutor’s Office, the RTS reveals the content of the classification order.
The Vaud Prosecutor’s Office announced it on Tuesday in a press release: in the Nzoy case, named after this man who died of gunfire at Morges station in August 2021, the police officer responsible for the fatal shooting acted in state. self-defense.
>> Read about it: Self-defense retained for the police officer who killed Nzoy at Morges station
The RTS Investigation Department has obtained the closure order and it allows us to better understand why prosecutor Laurent Maye closed the case.
The magistrate first returns to the minutes which preceded the tragedy of August 30, 2021. At 5:55 p.m., a mechanic on duty reported that an individual (Nzoy) was walking on the tracks at Morges station. Three minutes later, a first police patrol arrived on the scene.
According to the prosecutor, when the mechanic steps aside to let the police act, Nzoy pulls out a knife. Basically, he then heads towards a second patrol.
Three shots
The officers “ordered him to stop and drop his knife”. But he “starts to run in the direction” of a police officer, “who takes aim at him, steps back, then fires a first shot, which is lost, followed by a second shot.”
According to the magistrate, at the time of the second shot, Nzoy was a maximum of 6 meters from the police officer. It is then 5:59 p.m. The officer puts away his weapon and begins to advance towards Nzoy, but “he gets up and starts running again, armed with his knife”, towards the police officer.
The latter fires a third shot. Nzoy is then at a distance of between 2 and 4 meters from him. He won’t get up.
And yet it was imminent
In his analysis, prosecutor Maye notes that the behavior adopted by the deceased appeared “clearly as an attack”, the police officer could therefore “effectively feel threatened by an imminent attack”.
>> Read also: The police officer who shot in Morges explains that he “had no choice”
The magistrate specifies that Nzoy’s “determination” to attack the police officer was noted by the main person concerned, but also by the other participants and witnesses. For him, “the various video sequences” showing Nzoy’s progress support the explanations of the people he heard.
In the eyes of the prosecutor, Nzoy’s attack “could legitimately be considered serious and potentially fatal” by the agent.
>> Review the analysis from 7:30 p.m. on the classification of the case:
Tactical stick or pepper spray?
But should the shooter have used his baton (tactical stick) or pepper spray instead? Questioned on this point, he replied that the tactical baton is only used “during hand-to-hand combat”, but also that pepper spray “only has a limited range”. He said drawing his gun was “almost instinctive.”
In his dismissal order, the prosecutor recalls that, from a theoretical point of view, “the agent who finds himself confronted with an adversary armed with a knife must go out and hold the service weapon in his hand, while addressing him.”
As for when to open fire, Laurent Maye writes that a distance of 7 meters “is generally considered to be the minimum safety distance below which a police officer takes the risk of being hit by the knife.”
Appeal announced
In conclusion, the prosecutor affirms that the agent “found himself confronted with a serious and potentially lethal attack, which occurred suddenly and carried out in a determined manner […] By distancing himself and issuing warnings, he appears to have implemented all reasonable measures intended to avoid having to open fire. He only actually used his weapon at the last moment […]. It is therefore a question of admitting that the conditions for self-defense are met.”
Laurent Maye therefore closed the case. But the lawyer for Nzoy’s family has already announced an appeal against this decision. The matter will therefore not stop there.
>> Read also: The family of the man killed in Morges denounces a racist blunder
Fabiano Citroni, RTS Investigation Department
