Two off-duty police officers beaten up in Old Nice, the five suspects released under judicial supervision

Two off-duty police officers were beaten up in Old Nice during the night from Thursday to Friday, in circumstances which remain unclear. Five attackers were arrested immediately after the incident and taken into police custody. Aged 27 to 34, they were brought in late Saturday afternoon as part of an immediate appearance procedure. “with requisitions for placement in pre-trial detention”indicates the public prosecutor of Nice, Damien Martinelli. Requisitions which were not followed by the judge of freedoms and detention, the latter deciding to release them with placement under judicial supervision pending the judgment, which will be held on Tuesday.

The attack occurred around 2 a.m., rue de la Préfecture, a stone's throw from the judicial court and near a bar where the off-duty civil servants, accompanied by two female police officers, had spent the evening. Sources close to the case cite two motives behind the altercation. In the first version, one of the suspects made an inappropriate remark about the buttocks of one of the police officers. One of his colleagues would have come to his defense and the situation would have escalated. In the second version, one of the suspects this time offered cannabis to the police, the latter declining and specifying their role. The drug trafficker returned a few minutes later with a small gang to fight.

“A Clockwork Orange France”

What we know, however, without a shadow of a doubt, is how violent the events were. Part of the attack was filmed by a local resident and the sequence posted on social networks. We see one of the victims on the ground, inert. The second is attacked by the five suspects, dressed in tracksuits and hoods on their heads. They dragged the man to the ground and hit him several times, including a kick to the head. Witnesses to the scene painfully try to push them away. At the end of the thirty-second video, the group passes next to the first police officer on the ground and one of the suspects shoots him in the head.

The attackers were all arrested during the night by agents of the anti-crime brigade (BAC) just a few dozen meters from the scene of the attack, on the Place du Palais de Justice. The two victims were transported to Pasteur hospital and were each prescribed four days of total incapacity for work (ITT). On X, the spokesperson for the Alliance Police nationale union, Rudy Manna, denounced on Saturday the “anti-cop hate.” “France Orange Mécanique is developing everywhere”he again lamented. “It’s more of a fight, we’re really trying to kick a man to death on the sidewalk”laments Laurent Alcaraz, from the same union for the Alpes-Maritimes.