Police officers killed in the North: the other driver positive for alcohol and drugs

The three young police officers killed in a collision, Sunday, in the North, were struck by a vehicle in the wrong direction, speeding and whose driver was heavily alcoholic and drugged, according to the elements of the investigation unveiled on Monday by the prosecutor of Lille.

The driver in question, killed in the shock, “has a blood alcohol level of 2.08 g / l and he is, moreover, positive for cannabis”, detailed the prosecutor Carole Étienne during a conference. Press.

The 24-year-old man and his seriously injured 23-year-old passenger were unfavorably known to the police for alcohol consumption, drug use and outrage, a police source said on Sunday. “The first elements of the investigation confirm the hypothesis of a frontal impact between the two vehicles”, specified Carole Etienne, the video surveillance and the testimonies making it possible to affirm that the vehicle, an Alfa Romeo, “was engaged against the direction “.

The speedometer of this car “stuck just below 120 km/h”, she also pointed out. The police crew circulated for its part “with a revolving light”. An investigation has been opened for homicide and involuntary injuries.

A minute of silence

The collision, very violent and which also seriously injured a young girl sitting in the police vehicle, occurred Sunday around 7 a.m., on the RD 700 at the level of Villeneuve-d’Ascq. The three deceased police officers, two 25-year-old men and a 24-year-old woman, had taken up duty an hour earlier, according to the departmental director of public security (DDSP) in the North, Thierry Courtecuisse.

They transported this 16-year-old girl to the Lille medico-judicial unit “in order to have her examined urgently by a doctor as part of an investigation opened into acts of personal injury that she had denounced to the course of the night,” according to the prosecutor. His state of health “has still not allowed him to be heard,” she said.

The vital prognosis of the Alfa Romeo passenger remains “engaged”. He allegedly insulted a firefighter who came to rescue him and refused to reveal his identity, according to the investigation. Visiting this Monday morning at the Roubaix police station, on which the three victims depended, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin announced that a tribute would be paid to them by the end of the week, without specifying the day of this ceremony. , which he will chair.

The minister’s entourage specifies that President Emmanuel Macron “has decreed that a speech of tribute to the police be read in all police stations, gendarmerie brigades, prefectures and sub-prefectures”. A minute of silence has already been observed at the start of the session on Monday afternoon at the National Assembly.

“We remain in meditation, emotion”

“Life was ahead of them,” said the minister, who spoke of “this child who will be one year old and who will not know his father” or “this pregnant woman who will not be able to present her future child to her dad. “.

Local elected officials, deputies and residents came to lay flowers this Monday morning at the foot of the imposing brick building of the Roubaix central police station. “The Nation thanks you”, we could read in the middle of the bouquets. “It’s sad… In addition, they were young, it must be a shock for their family”, estimated Ibtissem Soltani, 18, who came as a neighbor. “And then there was a young girl with them who was injured, that touches me too. “We remain in meditation, emotion. We want to know what happened, if the wounded were heard. It’s a tragedy,” lamented the Alliance deputy zonal secretary in the region, Arnaud Boutelier.

Twelve members of the police have died over the past fifteen years in multi-murderous accidents for the police, the last of which, which occurred on April 11 in the Landes, had cost the lives of two gendarmes who were trying to control a dangerously fast-moving vehicle.