Police at the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation in Bagneux on 12 August after being asked to provide footage of a violent stop in the French town.
Since then, the video generated nearly a million clicks online. AFP geolocated the images and confirms that the excerpt was indeed filmed on the border between the towns of Bagneux and Fontenay-aux-Roses.
The ten-second muted video depicts a car hitting a black man wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Two other men - one in a police uniform and the other in civilian clothes - rush towards him as he stands up, knocking him down and immobilising him with his face pressed against the pavement. Just as the video stops, the uniformed man raises his arm.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, one person was taken into custody, although it did not specify who this person was. After a “psychiatric examination” said person “was hospitalised on Sunday”, the statement further notes without giving any details of the man’s state of health.
Police also contextualised the video to AFP, claiming that the man was riding a two-wheeler and ran a traffic light before hitting a police car. Le Parisien also reported on this, explaining the man got off his vehicle before being caught by the police.
The Bagneux prefecture claims that the arrested man stopped was “a little agitated, not very coherent” but was “not injured”. He was nonetheless taken to a doctor for a check-up. In addition, the prefecture reveals two police officers were injured and as a result prescribed seven days of total incapacity for work. When asked about the circumstances of the arrest, the prefecture refused to comment.
