In a context of mobilization of high school students in several cities in France, the images of a high-ranking police officer beaten up by young people in Belfort (Territoire de Belfort), Friday October 2, sparked indignation at the highest level of the State. The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, promised that "everything will be done to identify the perpetrators of this despicable act."
Very violent images showing the beating of a police officer were widely relayed from late Friday morning on social networks, notably by police unions. A plainclothes officer, commander of territorial intelligence, appears pursued by "a horde of particularly aggressive individuals really against him", described Paul-Edouard Lallois, public prosecutor of Belfort, during a press briefing. One of the protagonists makes him fall backwards. The police officer is then beaten. One individual punched him several times in the head, another kicked him in the head.
Police reinforcements “quickly intervened to disperse the group of attackers” and come to the aid of the police officer, the prosecutor said. He specifies that the scene took place at 9:15 a.m., near the Gustave-Courbet high school in Belfort. The plainclothes commander had just arrested a young man “suspected of having started a fire on the grassy area surrounding the area near the high school”.
In a post on He emphasizes that the “deliberately targeted” police commander was “hospitalized after losing consciousness” but that “his condition no longer gives rise to major concern.” “The first examinations are reassuring,” France Télévisions learned Saturday morning from a police source, reporting that the police commander is suffering from “superficial trauma.”
Only one arrest linked to this beating has, so far, taken place, that of a 17-year-old teenager, attending the Gustave-Courbet high school, and having no criminal record. The high school student was arrested just after the attack on the police officer, said the Belfort public prosecutor. His police custody ended on Saturday morning, he declared to France Télévisions, specifying that he walked out free, without prosecution, since "no element indicates that he took part in the lynching", even if he admitted to having been present at the scene.
The magistrate assures that the investigations are "progressing well" and that several individuals who participated in the beating "have been formally identified" but not yet arrested. Parents "came forward out of good citizenship and provided videos to the police authorities", also relays Paul-Edouard Lallois.
However, on Friday afternoon, new images released after this attack were shared and widely commented on on social networks. They were filmed just before the lynching of the police officer, Paul-Edouard Lallois confirmed to France 3 Bourgogne Franche-Comté, who authenticated them.
In a blurry video lasting around thirty seconds, the police commander appears standing, with his feet in a river, questioning a young man kneeling in the water. The individual's face appears to come into contact with the river and, while he appears to resist the arrest, the police officer detains him and attempts to handcuff him.
Several Internet users believe that the police officer tried to “drown” the young man. The LFI deputy for Essonne Antoine Léaument shared one of the video extracts on his X account, writing: "Hello @NunezLaurent!!! Call for calm to the men who are under your responsibility. This intervention does not meet any of the rules of maintaining order. None."
In another eleven-second video, the two protagonists go back up a small slope, at the top of the river. The police officer holds the young person by the sweater behind his back with one hand and holds a gas bottle in the other hand. Both walk, the young man appears unhandcuffed.
The Belfort public prosecutor provided details on these two video extracts to France 3, explaining that the police commander "wanted to isolate the young person as far as possible from the crowd" which led him to the river. "He then proceeded to arrest him, he kneeled him and handcuffed him. And he subsequently picked him up, before crossing the watercourse to return to the esplanade, towards the side of the crowd. It was at this moment that he was violently attacked", details the magistrate to our colleagues. The police officer then “defended himself with his tear gas grenade, but he was quickly overwhelmed, which led to this violent lynching.” The magistrate affirmed on BFMTV that the young man then managed to flee, with handcuffs on only one wrist.
Paul-Edouard Lallois firmly contests any attempt to drown this individual. "Indeed, the two found themselves in the water. We also see the commander with his feet in the water. But he quickly picked him up and, as we see with the images which follow this first truncated video, the young person is in good health and he walks with the police officer until the attackers intervene." The prosecutor insists on "the urgency of the situation" and the "danger" posed by an arrest carried out "without nearby support" and with "the only equipment a gas canister, a pair of handcuffs and his service weapon".
