A 30-year-old man died on Friday morning in the Paris hospital where he was admitted on Thursday after receiving about ten electric shocks from firearms during his arrest by police in Montfermeil, a northern suburb of Paris, according to AFP from the Bobigny prosecutor's office learned office.
According to the first elements of the investigation cited by the Bobigny public prosecutor's office, six police officers used their electro-pulse pistol in a northern suburb of Paris.
According to the same source, on Thursday 18 officers intervened in a grocery store in Montfermeil to arrest this man who was in a “state of over-excitement” and “aggressiveness”.
Born on January 1, 1994 in Martinique, a French overseas department, the man had been in a coma in hospital in Paris since his arrest.
An autopsy is scheduled to be carried out on Monday.
According to a source familiar with the case, who relayed the story to the police officers, an initial team from the Anti-Crime Brigade (BAC) intervened after receiving a call from the grocer complaining about the threats and aggressiveness of the man, who subsequently tested positive for alcohol. On site, the police officers were attacked by the man, one of whom was severely bitten on his finger and injured in the face. They then called for reinforcements, this report states.
According to prosecutors, six of the 18 officers who intervened used their electric pulse gun (PIE, which involves projecting spikes connected to the weapon via wires). According to the initial findings of the investigation, around 12 shots were fired without having any immediate effect.
He suffered two cardiac arrests before being hospitalized in a coma, according to a source familiar with the case.
According to the public prosecutor's office, a cardiac arrest was diagnosed when the man was in the fire department van that had looked after him after the arrest on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
The investigation into their intervention was assigned to the IGPN (Inspection General of the National Police). Police officers have not yet been questioned and review of video surveillance is ongoing.
A second investigation into the man over the violence and death threats against officials has been assigned to the territorial security of Seine-Saint-Denis in a Paris suburb.