Home » News » What we know about the Gabriel case, a young boy injured during his arrest by the police

What we know about the Gabriel case, a young boy injured during his arrest by the police

Gabriel, 14, seriously injured during his arrest by the police on the night of May 24 to 25, in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis), is currently hospitalized, revealed the Bondy Blog. The IGPN was seized while the lawyer of the family lodged a complaint before the public prosecutor’s office of Bobigny for “violence in assembly by persons holding public authority on minors under 15 years”.

In recent days, the shocking photos of his swollen face have been making the rounds on social networks. As revealed the Bondy Blog, on the night of May 24 to 25, Gabriel, 14, was arrested by the police in Bondy, in Seine-Saint-Denis, while he was trying around 1am to steal a scooter with a friend. When the police arrive, the two young teenagers run away, each on their own. If the arrest of his comrade took place under normal conditions, Gabriel’s account of his is very violent: “There were three boys and a woman. They pinned me to the ground, they put one knee on my head, one knee on my shoulders, they put me in handcuffs. The woman who is blonde was holding my ankles while a bearded officer, quite fat, kicked me in the head with boots. “

He was then taken to the Bondy police station, where, around 4 a.m., the police notified his mother that her child was in police custody. According to information from the Bondy Blog, she will call several times before finally receiving a phone call from the pediatric emergencies of the Jean Verdier hospital in Bondy, where Gabriel was transferred. He then suffers from a “Facial and head trauma accompanied by vomiting” and a “Three broken teeth and a left maxillary fracture extending to the floor of the orbit”. The teenager has since been hospitalized at Necker Hospital, specializing in the care of children and adolescents. For his part, a police source assured to the AFP qu’“At the sight of the police, the teenager fled, he fell and rebelled during his arrest”. According to the same source, the police then took him to hospital “To check the compatibility of his condition with police custody”.

“The police will have to explain how he could have fallen on his own”

A complaint against X for “Intentional violence by a person holding public authority over a minor” was lodged with the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) by Gabriel’s mother, who said: “I would have preferred them to catch him and put him in jail rather than slaughter him like that.” Other relatives of the young boy also spoke to the Bondy Blog, in particular his brother: “He doesn’t eat anything, everything he swallows, he vomits it, tells his brother, If I catch it [le policier, ndlr] and that I do to him what he did to my little brother, how many years will they give me in prison? What we want today is for the police to pay for their actions and to send us police officers who know how to manage. ”

As AFP points out, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office indicated that the IGPN had been seized on Friday, May 29. While waiting for it to shed light on this affair, a rally was organized in Bondy, Monday, May 1, to “Do justice to Gaby”. A hundred residents, elected officials and activists against police violence was present.

>> To read also: “A bicot like that, it does not swim”: racism and police violence in Seine-Saint-Denis

A complaint filed with the Bobigny prosecutor’s office

The Parisian reports that Stéphane Gas, the family council, lodged a complaint with the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office on Tuesday, June 2 for “violence in a meeting by persons with public authority over minors under 15 years old”. For the lawyer, quoted by AFP, “This is a new case of police violence which has the particularity of targeting a 14-year-old child who weighs 40 kilos and who is facing four adults, supposed to be professionals in the maintenance of order”. And add: “How can Gabriel lose three incisors, suffer from the socket of his eye but have no abrasion on his nose? The police will have to explain how he fell on his own. ”

This Tuesday, June 2, Gabriel, who was prescribed 30 days of total incapacity for work (ITT), must undergo an operation on the eye socket, which he could lose. This case also comes in a context of denunciation of police violence, whether on the side of the United States with the death of George Floyd or in France, with a call from the Truth and Justice Committee for Adama to demonstrate before the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance on Tuesday, June 2 so that “All progressive forces (may) express (their) revolt against the denial of justice” and police violence.

>> To read also: Police violence: “What Camélia Jordana says is obvious, it is the astonishment that she meets which is astonishing

>> To read also: Camélia Jordana and Assa Traoré: “We are the people, we are the number, we are the force”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.