Police officer filmed in Carcassonne throwing man to ground: trial date set for 6 November
A national police officer facing charges for violence in Carcassonne during Music Day will appear on 6 November. He has been suspended from all police duties.
Carcassonne police officer charged after violence video
A national police officer will be tried on 6 November before the Carcassonne magistrates' court, the prosecutor announced in a statement on Saturday 26 September, according to BFM TV. The incident dates to 21 June, during the Fête de la musique, when a video showed the officer grab a man by the shoulders before violently throwing him to the ground.
The images, distributed in particular on social media by LFI deputy Thomas Portes, triggered a judicial inquiry entrusted to the Marseille branch of the IGPN, the General Inspectorate of the National Police. The officer is suspected of "wilful violence by a person vested with public authority".
Taken into police custody on Friday, he was subsequently presented to the prosecutor before being referred to the magistrates' court. Pending the hearing, he is subject to judicial supervision "with prohibition from exercising any police activity or any activity linked to security, and prohibition from possessing a weapon", specified the Carcassonne prosecutor, Géraldine Labialle.
Victim died around ten days after the incident
In the images, the victim was holding his head after his fall and showed a wound on his skull. Described as "manifestly intoxicated" by the prosecutor, he had been evacuated by emergency responders at the scene.
The 29-year-old man, homeless since the age of 16 and suffering from drug addiction, died on 3 July, approximately ten days after the incident. He was found "in cardiac arrest" at his encampment.
However, prosecutor Labialle specified that no link has so far been established between the 21 June violence and this death. The conclusions of the autopsy performed on 9 July ruled out "any traumatic lesion suggesting involvement by a third party". Given the victim's medical history, a "toxic cause" is favoured to explain his death.
Source: BFM TV