Motorist killed by police in Bayonne: police custody lifted

The policeman who shot a motorist fatally was released from custody.

The author, on the night from Sunday to Monday in Bayonne, of a fatal shot at a motorist who had struck a police vehicle and injured one of his colleagues, left Tuesday evening without charge against him at this stage, announced his lawyer and the prosecution.

A judicial investigation is open for intentional homicide by a person holding public authority, and an investigating judge will be seized in the coming days, said the Bayonne public prosecutor's office in a press release.

The conditions of absolute necessity "seem to be met

The elements of investigation to date "seem to converge to establish" that the police officer "used his weapon in the conditions of absolute necessity and proportionality", with the aim of immobilizing a car likely to harm " the life and physical integrity of his colleague "added prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier.

He specifies that "these first fragmented elements must be considered with caution". 

According to the police officer's lawyer, Pascal Rouiller, he fired "for the sole purpose of saving his colleague whose life was in obvious danger".

He remains "very affected by the tragic outcome of a simple road control mission".

The victim is a woman, born in 1983, who had collided with a police vehicle on an artery in the center of Bayonne around 1:00 Monday, wanting to "force the passage" at a road check, detailed the prosecution on Monday.

Of the two police officers getting out of their car, one had been injured in the right knee while trying to avoid the motorist, and his colleague had used his service weapon, hitting the driver. 

The driver "deliberately hit the police vehicle" according to the investigation

The prosecution opened two preliminary investigations: one for attempted murder of police officers, entrusted to the judicial police;

the other for intentional homicide by a person holding public authority, entrusted to the IGPN, the "police of the police" and to the PJ.

Regarding the attempted homicide, the investigation establishes that the motorist "deliberately struck the police vehicle positioned as a roadblock" and "directed his own vehicle in the direction of the police officer," the prosecution said Tuesday.

According to a police source, the motorist was known to the police for acts of violence and a psychiatric history.

National police spokesperson Michel Lavaud said Tuesday on CNews that "refusals to comply are increasing. Police officers, gendarmes (...), we have 24,000 refusals to comply per year" on the part of motorists.