Police officer who killed a teenager in a traffic stop carried out at the opening of the Olympics. The family is outraged

PARIS (AP) — Issam El Khalfaoui did not expect this call during the Opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. It was her sister, telling her that the police officer who killed her son was on TV, showing off his BMX skills to audiences around the world.

“I could tell from her voice that she was destroyed,” El Khalfaoui told the Associated Press. “I was paralyzed, thinking: it can’t be.”

The official’s participation in the Paris Olympic Games ceremony is sparking renewed protests against murders committed by police in Franceespecially young Arab and black people, and demands more police accountability.

In August 2021, El Khalfaoui’s 19-year-old son Souheil was shot and killed by a police officer in training during a traffic stop in the southern French city of Marseille. A homicide investigation is still ongoing and the officer is not on leave in the meantime.

The officer, Romain Devassine, is an amateur BMX rider who was among those who performed on floating platforms on the River Seine for the opening ceremony of the Olympics, according to French reports. He was quoted by regional news site La Voix du Nord as calling it an “unforgettable” experience. He did not compete in the Games proper.

The officer’s lawyer and the Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Following his sister’s phone call, Issam El Khalfaoui decided to share his outrage in an opinion blog he submitted to the French investigative news site Mediapart this week. “I am extremely curious to know who allowed this man to take the stage,” he wrote.

Paris 2024 Olympic organizing committee spokeswoman Anne Descamps said on Tuesday that the opening ceremony artists were hired by an external production agency and that “the selection is based on their creative abilities.”

During the fatal traffic stop, Souheil El Khalfaoui began to reverse his vehicle at one point, according to the investigation by internal police agency IGPN. Documents from that investigation seen by the AP say El Khalfaoui endangered the life of another officer by retreating, and in response, Devassine shot El Khalfaoui in the chest, killing him.

Souheil was pulled over for fleeing a previous stop the day before.

The family and their lawyers say the internal police investigation had several problems: CCTV footage from four cameras at nearby businesses was lost, some key witnesses were never questioned, and the officer was not immediately arrested but was allowed to walk free shortly after. the murder. , which is unusual in France.

While he doesn’t deny that Souheil was trying to escape the traffic stop, his family questions the police account that he put an officer’s life in danger.

“Many people criticized the fact that Souheil didn’t stop,” Issam El Khalfaoui told the AP. “He didn’t die, but that doesn’t mean he had to die.”

The Khalfaoui family says there is a deeper issue that links them to other families who have lost loved ones to police killings in recent years: Since 2017, French police have had greater freedom to use their firearms.

One 2023 to study by police experts showed that deadly shootings of people in cars have increased sixfold since 2017.

“When we allow agents to shoot more, we necessarily accept that there will be more people killed,” said Sebastian Roché, a criminologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and one of the study’s authors. “The law allows you to shoot people who are not a threat and who have not previously committed a crime, but who are thought to be likely to commit one in the future.”

Police unions say officers face increasing dangers.

“The police’s most dangerous mission at the moment is to stop traffic,” said Jean-Christophe Couvy, general secretary of the Unité police union. “Sometimes we face people for whom human life does not matter. We have to defend ourselves, our colleagues and sometimes citizens, and we have to make a decision in the blink of an eye.”

The murder of another French teenager of North African descent, 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb last year caused big riots as protesters denounced racism and police brutality across France.

The revelation about the officer at the Olympics ceremony has reignited anger and sadness among other families of people killed by police.

“I’m not just the story of me and my son,” said Issam El Khalfaoui. “I have little hope for how this will end, but I don’t want this to happen to other people again.”

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AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Paris contributed.