Pont-Neuf shooting: union gatherings in France against indictment of policeman’s murder

On April 24, a police officer armed with an assault rifle opened fire on the driver of a car and one of the passengers, suspected of having tried to escape control. The two men are dead.

Le Monde with AFP

Several rallies before courts and police stations are scheduled for Monday, May 2, in France, in France, at the call of police union organizations to protest against the indictment for “voluntary homicide” of the police officer who killed two men suspected of having forced control over the Pont-Neuf in Paris on the night of April 24 to 25.

Police should be mobilized in around forty cities, from Lille to Marseille, via Bordeaux and Strasbourg, announces the union of peacekeepers alliance, on the initiative of the appeal to which the union joined Synergy-officers and Unsa-Police. The biggest gathering should be held at noon in Paris, Place Saint-Michel, located a few hundred meters from the courthouse and the Pont-Neuf.

It was on this bridge, on April 24, that a policeman armed with an assault rifle opened fire on the driver of a car and one of the passengers, respectively aged 25 and 31 years. They died on the scene and a third man was injured.

At the end of forty-eight hours of police custody, the 24-year-old peacekeeper, was indicted for “voluntary homicide” concerning the driver, “voluntary violence by person depositary of the ‘Public authority having resulted in death without intention to give it “with regard to the passenger before and for” voluntary violence aggravated by person depository of public authority “towards the rear passenger. It was placed under judicial supervision.

union tensions

In the process, the Alliance union published a leaflet denouncing the “inadmissible decision” of the investigating judges to retain the criminal qualification of “voluntary homicide”, liable to thirty years in prison.

Furthermore, Alliance and Synergie-Officers call to set up a “presumption of self-defense” of the police, a measure defended by Marine Le Pen during the presidential campaign but rejected by the re-elected president, Emmanuel Macron.

Unit SGP Police-Force Ouvrière, competitor of Alliance, chose not to “take positions that could take prejudice” to the colleague indicted, recalling that he is presumed innocent, and asked “a jurisdiction and Specialized magistrates experienced in the difficulties of the police profession “.

While union elections are held at the end of the year, this case exacerbated the tensions between the representatives of the peacekeepers. “Everyone is exciting. The police unions want to recover this file, I say that it is necessary to keep the reason,” said Laurent-Franck Liénard, the policeman’s lawyer.

/Media reports.