A simple cell phone. The police officer indicted for intentional homicide, for having shot Sulivan Sauvey, 19, on June 9, while he was trying to escape a traffic stop on foot, revealed to investigators on Friday June 21 her version of the facts. According to his statements, revealed by the Parisian and the Mondethe 46-year-old civil servant would have “felt in danger”. She tells : “He had something in his hand, to me it was a handgun. His hand was coming from behind or at his pants pocket towards me. It was not a natural running gesture, for me I interpreted it as being a weapon release. I felt in danger, I was afraid.” Before realizing that he wasn’t carrying a gun in his hand, but a phone.
She admits, to investigators, to having fired without warning. She moves forward “a return shot” sous “the surprise effect”. However, she admits to having heard one of her colleagues shouting to the fugitive: “Stop or I’ll tase you”. “I didn’t have time to hesitate”, she says. For this case, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IPGN) concludes that there was non-regulatory use of the weapon, based in particular on the difference in perception of danger by the two police officers: “the use of this weapon of intermediate force [le taser, ndlr]non-lethal, fit perfectly within the framework of necessity and respected the requirement of proportionality of the threat”. Contrary to the reaction of the official, therefore considered disproportionate.
His revelations, in the midst of an investigation, did not fail to provoke a reaction from the Coutances public prosecutor’s office, in Manche, in charge of the investigation. With France 3 Normandie, the public prosecutor, Gauthier Poupeau, “confirmed” the comments made by the policewoman but said “dismayed by the violation of the secrecy of the investigation since the journalists of Le Monde and Le Parisien will have been given a copy of the procedure”.
Suicide attempts
This document also tells us that the official’s custody could not be carried out immediately after the events, because, “in a state of shock”, she would first have been taken to the hospital, “in view of his psychological state known to the service”. According to the IGPN report, this police officer made several suicide attempts in the past, including one at her workplace. It was marked by the death of two peace guards, a colleague during the 2015 attacks, and his brother-in-law in 2020. Three years ago, five expertises would have been carried out before it was authorized to resume of service, from a stronger army.
On the other hand, shadows still remain to be clarified. According to information from our colleagues, the document mentions that there was no “testing for alcohol and narcotics or a swab to look for gunshot residue on their hands and/or clothing”, at the time of the facts. The analyzes would have been carried out later, but the police officer would have washed her hands in the meantime. Furthermore, without follow-up medical treatment, was the peacekeeper really fit to practice her profession? “I am devastated by this intervention,” she told the judge. “My intention was not to take life.” An extremely rare occurrence for a person indicted for murder, the policewoman was left free (under strict judicial supervision), despite requests to this effect from the investigating judge and the prosecution.
Three days after Sulivan’s death, some 600 people, according to the prefecture, marched through the streets of Cherbourg during a white march in tribute to the young man. During the night of Saturday June 15 to Sunday June 16, violence broke out in the city. Nearly 300 people were present at his funeral this Wednesday.
