Written by Séverine Bourgault
She will not be present during the trial for manslaughter of Commissioner Grégoire Chassaing, which opens Monday June 10 in Rennes, five years after the death of Steve Maïa Caniço. But like every day since June 21, 2019, Morgane Colinet, his best friend, will think of him.
This is the first time that she has agreed to testify again, after four years of silence. Morgane Colinet today lives far from Nantes, in Sarlat-la-Canéda, in Dordogne. Steve Maïa Caniço was her best friend and she will not attend the trial of Commissioner Chassaing, which opens this Monday, June 10, in Rennes. However, she is waiting for this trial to mourn.
You will not be present at this trial, but what do you expect?
Let justice be done, let there be a sanction. In fact, it’s an answer I’m waiting for, because there hasn’t been an answer for five years. I’ve been waiting for five years to be able to mourn the loss of my best friend.
As long as the “Steve Maïa Caniço affair” is not judged, we will talk about it all the time. How did this evening go, who did what, at what time, why… Every year, as the month of June approaches, I already feel the anxiety rising within me.
What I’d like to do when I think of Steve is to only remember the good times I had with him, but there’s always something that brings me back to what happened that night.
In what state of mind will you follow this trial from home?
Anger ? There will always be some. Sadness ? It’s definitely there… It’s more of a mixture of anxiety and apprehension about what’s going to happen.
I’m afraid that justice won’t be done and to be completely honest, I don’t really have hope in that regard. I have the feeling that “they” will always be the winners.
At the time, you found it difficult to talk about Steve in the past tense, is that still the case?
Yes, still today. It’s a little blurry, I’m mixing the past and the present a little. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him that I necessarily talk about him in the past tense, but there are still times when I actually talk about Steve in the present tense. This is also why I expect from this trial a response that sounds like an end. And for me, the start of something else.
Do you still participate in free parties?
I go there a lot less often than before, because there’s work and as we get older, we no longer have the same energy, but yes, I still go there. And even in the South West, where I live now, it often happens to hear tributes made to Steve, to denounce police violence. And even without it being said, we know that there are tributes made to Steve, just through music.
Since what happened that evening, some people are afraid to go to a free party. That didn’t exist before, no one was afraid to go to a free party! Now, yes, the fear of the police is there. It is clearly there.
You left Nantes shortly after the tragedy. Have you been back since?
In Nantes itself, no, I am not capable of it. I sometimes go back to see friends who live near Nantes, and it’s already a bit hard. Especially since to get there, I have to pass in front of Quai Wilson… and it’s always a painful moment to go through.
It’s not running away from my memories, it’s running away from that evening, which prevents me from remembering him the way I want, like when we danced and cried because we found that the music was beautiful. This is how I would like to remember Steve.
Find us on our social networks and on france.tv
