Video surveillance footage from the Elancourt town council, west of Paris, taken in the late afternoon on September 6, shows a 16-year-old teenager having fun on his red motocross bike. He's not wearing a helmet and, despite the hot weather, is wearing a neckwarmer around his neck, probably to conceal his face. On his noisy motorcycle, which is not approved for city use, he wheels backward, crosses a sidewalk, circles, stops, starts up again and repeats his acrobatics in the middle of vehicles, sometimes at high speed – a commonplace scene in many suburbs, much to the displeasure many residents.
It was 6:20 pm and the "urban rodeo", which had begun some 30 minutes earlier, ended with the death of the young man, caused by a collision with a police car. It was at the scene to put an end to his series of traffic violations. Coming just a few weeks after the death of Nahel M., killed by a police officer in a Paris suburb at the end of June, the story provoked strong emotion and concern among the authorities. But there were no resulting incidents of note in Elancourt or neighboring towns.
The judicial investigation currently underway, opened into the charge of "involuntary manslaughter" and revealed to Le Monde, is shedding light on the circumstances of the tragedy, particularly the final minutes. The investigation, ordered by the Versailles public prosecutor's office, must determine the young man's behavior while driving the motorcycle, and analyze the sequence of decisions taken by the police officers to determine whether they should be held criminally liable.
The teenager, Sefa S., had been spotted by police officers on patrol – namely a brigadier-chef, a major and a young assistant policeman – returning from an intervention on a suicide attempt, after having carried out roadside checks all day. These officers are often mobilized to deal with urban rodeos – between 350 and 700 operations to combat these incidents take place every month in the region.
"North African individual dressed in black doing cartwheels," the chief brigadier summarily reported on the radio at 6:15 pm. The teenager was crossing a park with playgrounds, off-limits to motorized vehicles, where there were "children, families and walkers," according to the report by the French National Police Inspectorate (IGPN). The patrol lost visual contact with the motorcyclist for a moment, but found him again, stopped at a junction, four minutes later. "I approached the motorcycle, thinking I could check it out," said the 30-year-old chief brigadier – a scene confirmed by video surveillance.
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