The public prosecutor of Rennes requested the referral of a commissioner and the former chief of staff of the prefect in post during the drama of the 2019 music festival in Nantes, who saw a young man NOYER During a police intervention.
by Yan Gauchard (Nantes, correspondent)
This is a communication, the slightest word of which has been weighed in Troubuchet. And the words chosen are severe. This Wednesday, November 30, the public prosecutor of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, requested the dismissal of Grégoire Chassaing, commissioner who carried out the dispersion of a techno evening, organized the night of the 2019 music festival in Nantes , and Johann Mougenot, director of cabinet of the prefect of the time, before the criminal court “so that they were tried of the manslaughter”. That night, Steve Maia Caniço, 24, drowned in the Loire at the time of the police intervention.
The judicial vice is tightening around the two men indicted. The final indictment of the Rennes magistrate points “to the faults committed in the conduct of the police intervention” on the Quai Wilson, a site then devoid of the slightest parapet, and more specifically “the use of tear gas grenades by the police “. Just as he highlights “the faults committed as part of the preparation of the Music Festival”, in particular the absence of setting up a barrier on this area, owned by the Grand Port Maritime de Nantes-Saint- Nazaire, public establishment of the State. If they did not directly cause the death of Mr. Maia Caniço, these shortcomings “contributed in a certain way to its occurrence”, analyzes Mr. Astruc.
Delicate point for defense: the investigations carried out within the framework of the judicial information have “established with precision and certainty” The time of fall in the Loire of Mr. Maia Caniço, i.e. June 22, 2019 at 4 H 33 and 14 seconds, “in the time of the police intervention and after the first uses of tear gas grenades having taken place from 4 h 31”.
The police note of the police of June 20, 2019 mentioned the instructions to use tear gas only in the event of absolute necessity, “on the express instruction of the director of the order service”. However, after the police suffered jets of projectiles, the numbers placed under the direction of the commissioner made use of 33 tear gas canisters, 10 grenades of de -entering and, 12 times, launchers of defense balls, without referring upstream at the hierarchy. An inadequate response, according to Mr. Astruc, which recalls that a lacrymogenic grenade of the MP7 type can cover “an area of up to 1,000 m²”.
“Other solutions were possible”
Commissioner Grégoire Chassaing, he still gauge, implemented “progression and arrest operations, without immediately prohibiting the significant use” of these weapons, even though “other solutions were Possible, especially that of a withdrawal “. The conclusion is relentless: the use of “inappropriate means with regard to the situation appears constituting a characterized fault having contributed to the fall in the Loire and to the death of Steve Maia Caniço”.
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