BOBIGNY: A man recently released from detention for domestic violence has been shot dead by French police after his former girlfriend called for help using a special emergency phone issued two weeks before, prosecutors said Thursday.
The 26-year-old man fired at police when they arrived on Wednesday at a block of flats in Noisy-le-Grand, east of Paris, prosecutor Eric Mathais said in a statement.
Officers were responding to a call from a special “serious danger phone” (TGD) issued “urgently” to the 24-year-old woman just two weeks before, he added.
Although one of them was hit in the forearm, the two officers fired four shots in response, prosecutors said.
They hit the assailant in the carotid artery, chest, buttock and back, a police source said.
One cartridge was found under the man’s body and an automatic pistol was found on the scene, along with the four casings from the police shots, the source added.
TGD phones can be issued in France to women who have suffered domestic violence or rape.
A special button connects them to an operator who can in turn summon police immediately should the woman be in danger.
The device also shares the woman’s location with law enforcement.
Prosecutors said the man had recently been ordered to stand trial in June for alleged domestic violence against his ex over the past five years.
He already had a 2019 conviction for the same crime against a previous partner.
He was released from preliminary detention on January 24, under court-ordered restrictions including a ban on visiting the home of his ex-girlfriend.
The suspect’s release meant the woman qualified for a TGD phone.
She was in the flat with her mother and the two children she had with her ex when he began knocking at the door on Wednesday evening.
French Equality Minister Aurore Berge said on X the TGD phone “is a valuable tool to protect women” and added in this case a “femicide was prevented”, thanking the police.
An investigation into attempted murder against a public official has been opened, while the officers themselves face an internal affairs probe over violence unintentionally causing death. -AFP
