Young man killed during a check: the police officer who shot him dead indicted

A police officer was indicted and placed under judicial supervision on Wednesday 26 February in Toulouse, seven months after the death of a young man from the travelling community, killed while trying to escape a check of his vehicle in the suburbs of Toulouse, the public prosecutor's office announced in a press release. The death of the young man had provoked emotion and anger in the travelling community.

On July 25, 2024, at around 10:00 p.m., Maïcky Loerch , 28, was fatally injured while driving his car, near a restaurant in Fenouillet (Haute-Garonne), after five projectiles were fired by the police, one of which hit him in the head, during an attempt by the police to check his vehicle "whose characteristics corresponded to the one used that same morning to commit a robbery followed by violence" , recalls the Toulouse prosecutor's office.

Despite the police's warnings, the driver tried to flee, damaging street furniture in his tracks, before stopping. Two of the police officers then approached the vehicle, one of them taking aim at the driver and ordering him to stop, but the driver started up again, hitting the police officer in the leg. The soldiers then "used their service weapon in order to stop the vehicle" , according to the press release published Wednesday evening. Also on board the vehicle were Maïcky Loerch's partner and their young child, who were not hit by the police's gunfire.

The two soldiers were taken into custody after the incident and a judicial investigation was opened on July 31. After "numerous investigations" and hearings, the gendarme who fired the fatal shot was indicted on Wednesday for "intentional violence resulting in death without the intention of causing it, with the circumstance that the acts were committed by a person in a position of public authority," the prosecution said. Regarding the two other occupants of the vehicle, he was indicted, as was the second gendarme who fired the shots, for "intentional violence not resulting in total incapacity for work" by a person in a position of public authority in the exercise of their duties, according to the same source.

The two men, who maintain that "their shots were in no way intended to cause the death of Maïcky Loerch" , were placed under judicial supervision with a ban on carrying a firearm, the prosecution added. For the facts attributable to the driver, a judicial investigation had also been opened for "refusal to comply" .