‘I’m suffocating’: French police investigated over Paris delivery driver death

Four French police officers are being investigated over the death of a delivery driver who was pinned to the ground and reportedly cried “I’m suffocating” over and over again.

Cédric Chouviat, a 42-year-old father of five, died from a heart attack after being arrested following an altercation with police near the Eiffel Tower in Paris in early January.

French media outlets Le Monde and Mediapart say they have had access to the driver’s mobile phone recordings of the incident with police. Insults were exchanged on both sides over several minutes, and the dispute degenerated to the point where he was held to the ground wearing his helmet.

The arrest itself, involving three officers, lasted 22 seconds, during which Chouviat said “stop”, “I’m stopping” and then seven times the phrase “I’m suffocating”, according to the report and an expert assessment seen by AFP.

The scooter driver was taken to hospital in a critical condition and died two days later. The results of a postmortem said he had suffocated with “fracture of the larynx”, and Paris prosecutors opened a manslaughter inquiry.

The four officers implicated were taken into custody on June 17 and questioned as part of the investigation. According to French media they have been summoned for more questioning in early July.

Investigators are said to have analysed 13 videos taken of the scene, including nine filmed by the driver himself, three recorded by one of the four police officers present, and another from a motorist.

In the aftermath of Chouviat’s death his family denounced a “police blunder” caused by arrest techniques they said were “dangerous”. They called for the offences to be upgraded, and for the officers to be suspended.

Several days after the event, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the postmortem raised “legitimate questions, to which responses (should) be brought with all due transparency”.

The death in May of George Floyd in the United States has revived a debate over police violence and racial discrimination in France. Protests have focused on the death of Adama Traoré, a young black man who died in police custody in 2016.

Earlier this month the interior minister said that the controversial “chokehold” sometimes used in arrests would be “abandoned”. However the government then backtracked in the face of protests by police unions, and said the technique would no longer be taught, but stopped short of a total ban.

Lawyers representing Cédric Chouviat’s family are due to hold a news conference on Tuesday morning.