In 13 seconds, Cédric Chouviat repeated “I’m suffocating” nine times to the police during his arrest. On January 3, 2020, this 42-year-old father was pinned to the ground in Paris, his motorcycle helmet on his head during a police check, causing discomfort. Hospitalized in critical condition, he was pronounced dead two days later.
Tuesday October 29, the Paris prosecutor's office requested a trial before the criminal court for involuntary manslaughter against three police officers (they are still on duty) accused of having unintentionally caused the death of this delivery man. A fourth police officer, placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness, escaped prosecution.
Insufficient criminal qualification for the familywho wants to see them judged at the assizes. “I was shocked by the contradictions that I was able to read concerning the statements of the police,” underlined in Focus Sunday sur RTL, Sofia, daughter of Cédric Chouviat. While denouncing a “web of lies from the start”.
In her eyes, these depositions “make no sense,” she explained. And to continue: “I tried to understand certain things about the gestures they made. It's infeasible. I understand that they couldn't mime them on the day of the reenactment.”
“I think it’s intentional.”
In its requisitions consulted by AFP, the public prosecutor accused the three officials of “negligence” : they used an “arrest technique” that they knew was “dangerous” without ever checking the state of health of the delivery person.
Even if their “use of force” was “justified” in the face of the “oppositional behavior” of Cédric Chouviatestimated the prosecution, their “negligence” caused a “very rapid deprivation of oxygen to the brain” of the 42-year-old deliveryman, who died.
The victim's daughter said she was “surprised” to see “that the people who are supposed to protect us and ensure our safety are showing negligence.” And to add: “I think it’s intentional.”
“Selfish” behavior of the police
Cédric Chouviat's brain was deprived of oxygen for 2min58. In the videos, “we listen to my father's agony, we see the violence he suffers. Anyone would judge that there was a desire to harm from the moment they decided to go as far as at the end,” she assured. For her, “it’s not an accident”.
Almost five years after the events, Sofia Chouviat is full of questions: “Why not have reacted directly? Why did you leave my father on the asphalt lifeless? Why not have resuscitated him, and finally waited to contact a colleague to agree on a version to protect them?”
“From the beginning”, she deplored “selfish” behavior from police officers. “In the indictment, we read that they took more than a minute to react, 2 minutes and 50 minutes to leave my father on the ground, this is unacceptable for me,” she concluded.
He is now coming back to the investigating judge to send the police officers on trial or not.
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