- The autopsy, carried out Monday, revealed "an asphyxiation manifestation with a fracture of the larynx"
- Videos filmed by witnesses of the scene, allow to throw a new veil on the events.
- The family nevertheless calls for appeasement.
In more than twenty years of common life, Doria Chouviat knows it, Cédric, her husband, is sometimes someone a little "gueulard". "I do not refute the hypothesis that he may have been insulting, even admits his widow, during a press conference in the presence of his lawyers. But does he deserve what happened to him? This 42-year-old delivery driver, father of five, died on the night of Saturday to Sunday at the Pompidou hospital, less than 48 hours after having felt unwell during an arrest for a road traffic offense, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
The autopsy, carried out Monday, revealed "an asphyxiation manifestation with a fracture of the larynx", while underlining that the victim had a cardiovascular history. New forensic investigations are planned to substantiate the causes of death but the Paris prosecutor's office opened this Tuesday a judicial investigation for "manslaughter" in order to "determine the exact circumstances of the intervention of the police services" and a entrusted the investigations to the IGPN.
"Getting checked by the police is a bit of a routine"
According to the version of the police headquarters, Cédric Chouviat was checked on Friday January 3 at the corner of avenue de Suffren and Quai Branly while he was on the phone, the cellphone stuck in his helmet. From the outset, the 42-year-old delivery man, who works in his father's transport business, would have been “aggressive and disrespectful” towards the agents, going so far as to insult them after being fined. The officials therefore decided to arrest him for "contempt". "They had to control him to take him to the ground because he resisted," said Monday, a police source in the prefecture. It was not long after the police, seeing the victim turn "blue", started to have a heart massage.
Immediately, the relatives of Cédric Chouviat pointed to inconsistencies in the version of the prefecture, starting with the very reason for the check: the delivery man was equipped with a helmet with a built-in microphone, so he could not have his phone by ear. They also report that the authorities' version on this point has evolved over the hours and that this control would first have been justified by a license plate deemed illegible because dirty. “Getting checked by the police is a bit of a routine. He manages quite well and plays the "duck" [low profile], "says his widow.
A ventral tackle by three police officers
Videos, filmed by witnesses of the scene and recovered by the family's lawyers, however show that this routine check quickly seems to become tense. On a first tape, we see Cédric Chouviat, still in a helmet, trying to film the police who reject him. No overt gesture of violence on either side, but the tension is palpable. The second shows the driver, still helmeted, face down, held on the ground by three agents who use the maligned technique of ventral tackle. They seem to put pressure on his chest, while the victim's legs are restless. "We could perfectly handcuff him, that was enough," is moved by one of the family's lawyers, Me William Bourdon. He added: "As soon as the police don't take his helmet off, we increase the risk that Cédric faces. On the last one, the police give her a heart massage.
None of the videos screened during this press conference show, however, how Cédric Chouviat ended up on the ground. According to another family lawyer, Me Arié Alimi, the two witnesses who sent him the images claim that the police made a "choke key" and kept it on the ground for "three minutes". Testimonies which will be confronted with the exploitation of CCTV images - two cameras are in the area - as well as the video shot by Cédric Chouviat himself at the time of the drama. "If he took a video it is because something happened," said his wife.
Calming message
If the relatives of Cédric Chouviat now want all the light to be shed, above all they hear a message of peace and appeasement. "We do not have hatred, even if it is a homicide, it is a manslaughter, believes Doria Chouviat. I don't think the police who were there wanted to kill him. These are human beings who got carried away by their anger. "
This Tuesday evening, the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, sent his condolences to the relatives of the victim, while recalling the need to respect the presumption of innocence "which applies to everyone, including the police". Christophe Castaner, for his part, noted in a press release that the indications delivered by the prosecution "raise legitimate questions, to which answers must be provided in all transparency". "Faced with this ordeal," he added, the Minister of the Interior and the Secretary of State [Laurent Nuñez] send their condolences to the family and relatives of the victim. "
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