JI never wanted to run him over,” assured the 52-year-old motorist indicted for murder and imprisoned, suspected of having deliberately run over a 27-year-old cyclist on Tuesday in the heart of Paris. The investigation and video surveillance are, however, quite clear on the act, reports La Voix du Nord.
“I’m sorry about what happened. I have never been a thug, I have never associated with thugs,” assured AM during a hearing before a judge of freedoms and detention, which AFP attended. After crying several times during the proceedings, the man with graying hair remained silent when the magistrate ordered his incarceration. The prosecution had requested pre-trial detention, insisting on “disturbing public order”. “Someone is dead, in the middle of the street, and this moves the French people. » So far, however, the government has been very silent.
The prosecutor was alarmed by the “dangerousness” of the driver and a “risk of renewal not necessarily of murder, but of a fairly serious offense”. “The disturbance to public order is obvious, but it is involuntary homicide,” said the motorist’s lawyer, Franck Cohen. “It is a dramatically simple case”, with “what appears to be a maneuvering error or a loss of control of the vehicle in the stress and anguish of a conflict situation from which he was trying to extricate himself”, he said. -he pleaded.
Me Cohen brushed aside the dangerous profile outlined by the prosecutor. According to newspaper information The Parisianhowever, around ten infractions were observed during this trip before arriving at the young 27-year-old cyclist, such as red lights burned, bus lanes used, other cyclists brushed against… “It’s a quiet father of four children, two of whom are dependent, who brought his 17-year-old daughter to an appointment with the ophthalmologist,” defended his lawyer. He related the version of the facts of his client, a technical salesman living in the Paris region. “The gentleman made the mistake of taking the cycle path because the ophthalmologist was waiting for him for his daughter and there, unfortunately, the victim was there. He rolled down his car window to ask her to move but the victim immediately became angry, and rightly so. The victim hit the hood really hard, then told him it was rolling over his foot. »
“And there, my client backs down! Testimonies seem to say that he would have backed up to gain momentum, but with his vehicle (an SUV), there is no need to back up if you want to gain momentum. Stepping back is proof that he did not intend to kill,” the lawyer argued. Finally, his client “stopped” when he saw “in the retro” that a crowd had formed. “He tried to resuscitate” the young man on the ground, “there is no hit and run. He would never have run away, he is a very religious man,” underlined Mr.e Cohen.
« Danger public »
The suspect’s version “is categorically denied by the investigation”, reacted Yassine Bouzrou, lawyer for the family of the cyclist, Paul Varry. “My clients are relieved by the judge’s decision, because they believe that the murderer is a real danger to the public. He did not hesitate to kill a man in cold blood on the public highway in front of dozens of witnesses,” he said.
At this stage of the investigation, seven testimonies undermine the driver’s version of this tragedy, which took place Tuesday at 5:45 p.m., on Boulevard Malesherbes, in the 8e borough. According to these testimonies and the use of video surveillance, “the driver of the vehicle was going up the cycle path for 200 meters and would have driven over the foot of the cyclist who was on his left”, the prosecution reported at the end of his custody on sight.
Paul Varry “knocked on the hood to alert the driver, who initially backed away, freeing his foot,” continues the public prosecutor. “The cyclist had dropped his bike and positioned himself at the front left of the car, showing his displeasure. The driver then turned his wheels towards the pedestrian and resumed driving forward in his direction,” he added.
The front wheel then the rear wheel
“The autopsy confirmed the marks of the body being crossed by the vehicle” and “the video surveillance shows an elevation of the front, then the rear of the left side of the vehicle”, specified the prosecution.
The accident sparked strong reactions among elected officials in the capital, where “soft mobility”, in particular bicycles, has taken an increasingly prominent place in recent years. On Friday, the Paris town hall said it wanted “a place in Paris to bear the name” of the young cyclist. A minute of silence will also be observed in his tribute at the opening of the next Paris Council, on November 19.
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