Police illustration. - Fabrice Elsner / 20 Minutes

An investigation was opened this Friday in Guadeloupe, after a control for non-wearing of the mask to determine if the use of the baton by a gendarme was "justified" during an arrest, this Wednesday in Terre-de-Haut , In Saintes, announced a judicial source this Sunday.

The Basse-Terre prosecutor's office could initiate "legal proceedings" against this gendarme if an offense has been committed, said Basse-Terre deputy prosecutor Emmanuel Delorme in a statement.

Several blows with a telescopic baton

Two gendarmes proceeded, Wednesday at the end of the morning, to a control of the wearing of the mask in the village of the island, where to circulate masked is obligatory since August 15. At the order to put on a mask, a young man "refused to comply, while making outrageous remarks to them", reported the deputy prosecutor. The gendarmes then wanted to arrest him.

“The person concerned resisted and uttered insults, thus committing the offenses of rebellion and contempt, without however committing violence against the gendarmes. One of the gendarmes used his telescopic baton and struck the young man several times, ”continues the deputy prosecutor.

A complaint from the gendarmes for rebellion and contempt

The two gendarmes filed a complaint for contempt and rebellion against the arrested man, the national gendarmerie announced on Sunday. The young man lodged a complaint for "willful violence by persons holding public authority with total incapacity for work not exceeding 8 days".

Taken into custody on Wednesday, he was released the same day, while a demonstration in front of the gendarmerie gates brought together "a hundred people", according to the mayor of Terre-De-Haut, Hilaire Brudey, on local television, Canal 10. The arrest was filmed and the video shared more than 3,000 times on social networks.

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  • Gendarme
  • Police violence
  • Investigation
  • Coronavirus
  • Guadeloupe
  • Justice