Footage on social media platforms disseminated images and videos of an officer of the French Specialized Police Brigade (BST) inflicting a series of violent blows to a young man lying on the ground, prompting an investigation.
The 19-year-old victim of the assault, on Tuesday evening, is allegedly the son of an owner of a well-known tobacco shop on Ambroise Croizat Street in Lyon, according to “BFM TV.”
The authorities’ account of the incident indicates that the police officers were on patrol in the Minguettes district of Vénissieux when a group of approximately 15 individuals attacked them. They reported insults and death threats, adding that they had been the target of ‘projectiles,’ according to the same source.
In response, the police used tear gas to defend themselves. A police source informed BFM TV that the officers approached a young man intending to arrest him. However, the young man sought refuge in his family-owned neighboring tobacco store. The police then proceeded to enter the premises to arrest him, but he refused to comply.
A witness to the incident stated that the individual in question was not involved with the group of young people in question. However, he was inside the tobacco shop where he was employed and came out to request that the police stop using tear gas.
Police violence has become a recurring issue in France. Commenting on this affair, Idir Boumertit, an MP from Rhône, posted on X that he had referred the matter to the public prosecutor on the charge of “violence and abuse of force by a police officer.”
The deputy from La France Insoumise Party in Seine-Saint-Denis, Thomas Portes, recalled that his party had been denouncing “police brutality, which is systemic in the French police force, for several months.”