On July 19, 2016, on a hot summer day, Adama Traoré died in the Persan barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in Beaumont-sur-Oise, in Val-d'Oise, at the end of a chase . Neither witnesses nor videos gave an account of the scene, only reconstituted by the testimony of the three gendarmes and the conclusions of the doctors.

2016 - Autopsy and counter-autopsy contradict each other

The coroner who performs the first autopsy finds no trace of violence and notes an "asphyxial syndrome", as well as "infectious lesions", in particular in the lungs and the liver, without being able to identify the "immediate cause" of death . "We used the force strictly necessary to control it, but it took the weight of our body to all," said one of the gendarmes to the investigators.

At the time, after several nights of urban violence, the Pontoise prosecutor, Yves Jannier, spoke of "a very serious infection", "affecting several organs", but did not mention asphyxiation. A week later, a counter-autopsy carried out by a college of experts sweeps the track of the infection and confirms that of an "asphyxia syndrome", to be confirmed by an anatomo-pathological examination. The prosecutor is accused of having deliberately lied, instilling distrust. The case is entrusted to Parisian judges.

2017 - Death "by asphyxiation", linked to previous weaknesses

In September 2016, an appraisal on the only organs advanced the hypothesis of a cardiomyopathy "exposing Mr. Traore to the risk of sudden death" and notes several anomalies that may have contributed to the death.

On July 3, 2017, a second opinion on the organs confirms the trail of asphyxia but concludes that the cardiomyopathy "cannot be accepted with certainty": "death is secondary to an acute asphyxial state, linked to decompensation - to the occasion of an episode of stress and stress - of a multifactorial previous state ", write the doctors.

Among these factors, they cite in particular an enlarged heart (a moderate "cardiomegaly") and an inflammatory disease, without settling the question of the responsibility of the gendarmes in the triggering of the symptoms.

2018 - "the vital prognosis irreversibly engaged"

On September 14, 2018, a summary expertise removed the responsibility of the gendarmes. It concludes that the young man's "vital prognosis" was "irreversibly engaged" before their arrival at the scene of the arrest. According to the four experts, it is a genetic disease, sickle cell anemia, associated with a rare pathology, sarcoidosis, which led to asphyxiation during an episode of stress and effort.

The doctors rely in particular on the testimony of the private individual with whom Adama Traoré had hidden while he was trying to escape from the gendarmes. According to this resident, the young man was "breathless" when he found him sitting against his door. "The only thing he says to me is: 'shoot me'. I never saw him in such a state. He couldn't speak. He was breathing heavily," the man described to investigators on August 1, 2016.

2019 - Private counter-expertise relaunches the case

At the end of 2018, the judges closed the investigations without examining the gendarmes, opening the way to a dismissal.

But on March 11, 2019, the family released the medical report they asked four professors from Paris hospitals. The latter, including a specialist in sickle cell disease and one in sarcoidosis, sweep the conclusions of their colleagues, qualified as "theoretical speculation" and invite to "ask the question of positional or mechanical asphyxia", relaunching the challenge of the technique of arresting the gendarmes.

2020 - The ultimate legal expertise exonerates the gendarmes, the family disputes

The judges do not consider this expertise to be valid, but agree to order a new summary expertise, delivered on March 24. "Adama Traoré did not die from 'positional asphyxiation', but from 'cardiogenic edema', conclude the three doctors.

Without being categorical, they consider that "the combination of pulmonary sarcoidosis, hypertrophic heart disease and a sickle cell trait could probably have contributed to it in a context of intense stress and physical effort, under high concentration" cannabis.

To these results, revealed on May 29, the Traoré family responded four days later by paying a new private expert report carried out by a doctor. The latter also retains the hypothesis of an edema, which he attributes "to a positional asphyxia induced by the ventral plating", technique of arrest that the gendarmes claim not to have used.

With AFP 

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