BAC shootings in Stains: INDEX reconstruction screened in court

The investigation carried out by INDEX in 2022 into the shooting of the two Stains BAC officers who seriously wounded Nordine A. and Merryl B. in 2021 was screened at the Bobigny court, during the trial of the police officers held three years after the events.

On Thursday, October 3, 2024, the trial of the two officers of the Stains Anti-Criminality Brigade who opened fire on the vehicle of Nordine A. and Merryl B., seriously wounding them, took place at the Bobigny Judicial Court on August 16, 2021.

Charged with “intentional violence with a weapon by persons in a position of public authority”, Valentin L. and Jonathan F. fired eight shots in less than 7 seconds at the Citroën C2 driven by Nordine A.. The driver, hit by five bullets, and his rear passenger, Merryl B., shot in the back, both miraculously survived their injuries.

In 2022, INDEX published a video investigation of the case. Based on the video filmed on a smartphone by a witness to the scene, and elements from the judicial file, we produced a 3D digital reconstruction of the incident.

At the request of Nordine A. and Merryl B.’s lawyers, our reconstruction video was projected in the courtroom, to enlighten the tribunal on the dynamics of the events. The INDEX investigation “is a document that makes it possible to make the link between the ballistic expertise and the witness video”, argued one of Nordine A.’s lawyers, Vincent Brengarth. The presiding judge ruled, and the video was shown as a support to the debates.

At the end of the hearing, the public prosecutor ruled that the criteria for self-defense had not been met, describing the two officers’ actions as “inappropriate and dangerous, including for themselves”. The prosecutor called for each officer to be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, subject to modification, with an electronic bracelet and a five-year ban on carrying weapons. The complainant, Nordine A., who had already been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “refusal to obey orders” in the same case, had been granted leave to attend the trial, before being returned to custody at the end of the hearing.

The sentence is due to be pronounced on November 7.