A thirty-something died Wednesday evening at the municipal police station of Béziers, in Hérault, which had arrested him a short time before, the first death in France following a control of containment measures. The Béziers prosecution has opened an investigation for "manslaughter" after the death of this 33-year-old man, who has been convicted eight times since 2005 for violence and theft and who, according to municipal police, "refused to control them".
"It is unacceptable that in France a person dies because of his poverty and his great social vulnerability and the implementation of exceptional measures like the curfew", reacted the League for Human Rights de l'Hérault in a press release saying that it was a "homeless person". The man died after being transported to the police station by three municipal police officers.
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Controlled in the streets of Béziers
The latter had carried out his control around 22:20 Wednesday in the streets of Béziers, where a curfew is in effect from 21H, said the prosecutor Raphaël Balland. The death of the 30-year-old was noted around 11:30 p.m. by a doctor of the Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service (Smur), "after more than three quarters of an hour of resuscitation attempt at the premises of the Béziers police station", adds Raphaël Balland in a press release.
The prosecutor went to the scene, ordered "an investigation in the act of manslaughter" and entrusted the first investigations to the national police in Béziers. Departmental security in Montpellier is responsible for the rest of the investigation. According to statements by municipal police, the victim "refused control, adopted very aggressive behavior against them, justifying, according to them, to arrest him".
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Police say they heard him "snore", "letting them think he was asleep" after the arrest
Still according to the municipal police, the man then "strongly resisted the arrest for a long time" and it would have been difficult to handcuff him and "get him into the back of their vehicle while keeping him on his stomach". "A municipal policeman would then have sat on the buttocks of the still very excited individual in order to keep him until his driving" at the police station, according to the account of the prosecutor.
"He would have calmed down during the brief transport, the three police officers claiming to have heard him 'snoring', letting them think that he had fallen asleep," he said. But when they arrived in the courtyard of the police station, "the individual arrested was unconscious", and the gestures of help given by the police and then by the emergency services were "in vain".
Born in Béziers, one of the poorest cities in France, the thirty-something deceased was unemployed and father of three young children in the care of their mother, from whom he was separated. According to the prosecution, he was domiciled with his sister. An autopsy is to take place in Montpellier on Friday afternoon. The prosecution said it plans to request the opening of judicial information in the coming days.