Police shootings after refusing to comply near Lyon: a dead man and a man between life and death

The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) has at the same time been responsible for an investigation into violence with a weapon by persons holding public authority which has resulted in death without the intention of giving it, said the Lyon prosecutor's office in a press release. .

The two police officers who used their weapon were taken into custody and are currently being heard by the "police of the police".

The investigation for concealment of theft, aggravated refusal to comply and violence with a weapon against law enforcement officers was entrusted to the Departmental Public Security.

The facts took place around 0:05 a.m. on the night of Thursday to Friday in Vénissieux, a sensitive town very close to Lyon, according to the same source.

Four police officers, on night patrol, spotted a parked vehicle reported stolen in the parking lot of a shopping center, on the edge of the ring road, according to concordant information gathered by AFP.

As the police were preparing to check the suspicious car, the driver engaged reverse gear and then forward gear, hitting a police officer who was thrown onto the hood of the vehicle.

The car continued to progress and two police officers, including the one positioned on the hood, used their weapon several times. The car ended its race a hundred meters further, according to the press release from the Lyon prosecutor's office.

The police discovered in the passenger compartment of the vehicle two very seriously injured men and provided them with first aid.

The firefighters quickly on the spot noted the death of the passenger while the driver was transported to the hospital in absolute emergency, according to the prosecution. According to a police source, he is brain dead.

According to the police, the passenger was 20 years old and the driver is 26 years old.

- Known to the police -

The police officer struck was slightly injured in the legs and taken to hospital for examination, according to the prosecution.

The deceased passenger of the vehicle was known for theft and concealment and the driver, seriously injured, for armed robbery, burglary and drug trafficking, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"We have for many years (...) more and more refusal to comply (...). The law has been amended to strengthen the powers of police and gendarmes and to condemn these people. I have no doubt not police work", commented Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin during a visit to Corsica, "without assuming how the police did their job" in Lyon.

"We are on all the characteristics of a refusal to comply," said Nicolas Bujdo, deputy departmental secretary of the Alliance National Police union. "Colleagues go to the control of a stolen vehicle, which starts, and they fire back. They fired to save their lives," he told AFP.

Of 14,240 refusals to comply recorded in 2021 by the national police, 157 resulted in "use of firearms on moving vehicles", according to figures given by the spokesperson for the national police on Europe 1 in June 2022, after a case that occurred in Paris.

The refusal to comply targets a person who "consciously refuses to stop after the order of an agent clearly identified as such" and constitutes an offence, "punished by a maximum prison term of one year, obviously increased to five years when there is a danger to the life of others", according to the same source.