Death of El Hacen Diarra: was a third police officer involved in his prone restraint?

Before dying in police custody at the police station of Paris’s 20th arrondissement, El Hacen Diarra had been forced to the ground by several police officers during his arrest. Based on an analysis of an amateur video and a 3D reconstruction of the scene, our investigation examines the probable presence of a third officer positioned on the upper body of El Hacen Diarra.

During the night of 14 to 15 January 2026, El Hacen Diarra, a 35-year-old Mauritanian national, died in custody at the police station of Paris’s 20th arrondissement, following a cardiac arrest.

According to the public prosecutor’s office of Paris, El Hacen Diarra was arrested at around 10:45 p.m. near his place of residence, at the corner between rue Fernand Léger and rue des Pruniers, and was then taken to the police station of the 20th arrondissement. The prosecutor’s office stated that El Hacen Diarra allegedly suffered “a medical episode” while “sitting on a bench inside the police station.” “A cardiorespiratory arrest was observed, and a police officer began performing cardiac massage, which was continued by firefighters upon their arrival at 11:45 p.m. The death of the individual was pronounced at 12:20 a.m.” the prosecutor’s office told the French news-agency AFP on 17 January.

According to the prosecutor’s statements, the body cameras of the officers who carried out the arrest didn’t record any footage because their batteries were depleted. The day after El Hacen Diarra’s death, however, a video of his arrest, filmed by an anonymous witness from the window of a nearby building, was made public and quickly circulated on social media. Index analyzed this video; below, we publish our initial observations.

The scene of the arrest

The arrest takes place opposite the Mûriers migrant workers’ hostel, where El Hacen Diarra was staying. The video is filmed from a bird’s-eye view towards rue des Pruniers: the frame is partially obstructed by a metal fence running along the street; only the lower part of El Hacen Diarra’s body is clearly visible, the upper part being hidden by the fence.

As the video begins, El Hacen Diarra is visibly restrained by two police officers who are holding him down on his stomach. One of them is standing on his left ankle. He is holding a stun gun (Taser) in his hand, which is clearly still switched on, before tucking into his tactical jacket. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the police officers who arrested El Hacen Diarra used a Taser and hit him “in the ankle” to bring him to the ground.

The second policeman is lying on the back of El Hacen Diarra’s thighs. In the first moments of the video, he can be seen punching El Hacen Diarra twice in what appears to be his right flank, immediately followed by a verbal command: presumably, “Get on your stomach! At this point, it is therefore likely that El Hacen Diarra was not yet completely flat on his stomach (prone), but that his upper body was still partially twisted.

Likely presence of a third police officer

Examination of the video reveals the movement of a dark shape along the area obstructed by the fence, on two separate occasions. According to our analysis, this shape corresponds to the body of a third police officer involved in the stop. This conclusion is based on the following elements:

• Firstly, a 3D model of the two police officers visible on El Hacen Diarra’s body reveals a tactical inconsistency if they were the only restraining device: the person’s upper body would remain unrestrained. Yet the upper body – in particular the shoulder line – is the priority area for control during a ground restraint.

• Secondly, police crews are usually made up of three officers. In the footage analysed, only two officers are clearly involved in checking the lower body. It is therefore logical that the third member of the crew should be positioned at upper body level, even if he is not clearly visible in the video frame.

• Thirdly, the movements of the dark shape observed in the obstructed area are consistent with the position and gestures of a third officer controlling the upper body in accordance with the ground restraint protocols taught in police training.

However, the images available do not allow us to specify the exact position of this third agent or to assess the magnitude of the pressure exerted. In particular, it remains impossible to determine which part of the body was being pressed (arm, knee, torso, chest…), on which anatomical area (back, shoulders, neck, thorax…), and for how long.

Forensic elements

The forensic conclusions highlight several elements from the autopsy, communicated by the Paris public prosecutor’s office on 19 January 2026. In particular, El Hacen Diarra suffered a “fracture of the horn of the thyroid cartilage”, a part of the larynx. This lesion is compatible with cervical trauma, particularly in the event of strangulation or airway compression.

One element converges with this observation: at 00:31 of the video, a voice presumably corresponding to El Hacen Diarra can be heard uttering “You’re strangling me!”.

The public prosecutor’s office also reported a “deep right frontotemporal wound, bleeding, measuring 1.5 cm × 0.2 cm”. A video recorded the day after the incident shows traces of blood on the pavement at the scene of the arrest. Thanks to a photogrammetric survey, this bloodstain was repositioned to centimetre accuracy in the 3D model of the scene. Its location corresponds exactly to that of El Hacen Diarra’s head as it appears in the images of his arrest.

Conclusions

The analysis establishes the probable involvement of a third police officer in the ventral tackle of El Hacen Diarra.

The minimum length of time El Hacen Diarra was immobilised in the prone position visible in the video was 1 minute and 22 seconds.

The prone restraint: a dangerous technique

The prone restraint – or plaquage ventral, as it’s known in France – is an immobilisation technique that consists of holding a person in a prone position under significant physical duress. It exposes the restrained individual to a high risk of positional asphyxia. Although banned in several American cities (New York, Los Angeles) as well as in Switzerland and Belgium, it remains authorised in France.

This technique has been implicated in several documented deaths in France. Notably that of Cédric Chouviat, a 42-year-old delivery driver who died in January 2020 of asphyxia “with a fractured larynx” after being held down by three police officers.

Following the death of El Hacen Diarra, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened a criminal investigation into “intentional violence by a person in a position of public authority resulting in death”. Questioned on the case on 20 January 2026 at the National Assembly, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that he had “no reason to suspend” the police officers who led the arrest.