A 33-year-old man died Wednesday night at the Béziers police station, where he had been taken by municipal police after his arrest, reports Raphael Balland, the public prosecutor of Béziers, on Thursday. He could not be saved by the emergency services, despite more than 45 minutes of resuscitation attempt.
An investigation into manslaughter has been opened. It was entrusted to the police of the departmental security of Montpellier. An autopsy of the body will be performed on Friday.
A municipal policeman is said to have sat on his buttocks
According to the first elements of the investigation reported by the prosecutor, this man was checked an hour earlier, in Béziers, to check if he could justify his presence outside his home, because of the curfew and the containment measures.
The three municipal police officers, who were heard during a free hearing, indicated that the victim would have "refused control and that he would have adopted very aggressive behavior towards them, justifying according to them to proceed to his arrest" , indicates the prosecutor. “The man then strongly and long resisted the arrest. The municipal police officers found it difficult to handcuff him and then get him into the back of their vehicle while keeping him on his stomach. A municipal police officer would then have sat on the buttocks of the still very excited individual in order to keep him until his driving to the police station, a few hundred meters away.
He was oblivious when he arrived at the police station
During his transport to the police station, the man "would have calmed down", "the three police officers claiming to have heard him snore, letting them think that he was asleep". According to the prosecutor, a witness said that he witnessed part of the scene from his window: he confirmed "the state of excitement of the man arrested and the difficulty of the municipal police to control him". No video surveillance camera is installed at the site of the municipal police intervention, notes the magistrate.
When he arrived at the police station, the man was unconscious. Rescue gestures were then lavished on him by the police, then by the emergency services.
Known to justice
This Thursday afternoon, investigations continue to try to explain the death of this man. Toxicological research is in particular in progress.
The unemployed victim is the father of three young children, whose custody has been assigned to his ex-partner. Known by the justice system, he had been sentenced eight times since 2005, notably for violence and theft. On April 7, he was presented to the Béziers prosecution, suspected of having stolen money from the hands of a person at the exit of an ATM. He was then sentenced to six months in prison, but without a warrant, says the prosecutor of Béziers.
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