LONDON: The family of a teenager killed by a policeman in France have shared their shock at seeing the officer included in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
Issam El-Khalfaoui said he and his family were “in a state of shock” when they saw Romain Devassine, who took part in the ceremony as a BMX rider, The Times reported on Wednesday.
Devassine was deemed by France’s General Inspectorate of the National Police to have shot dead Souheil El-Khalfaoui in August 2021 out of “absolute necessity” and no charges were brought.
The El-Khalfaoui family filed a complaint that the inquiry had been handled wrongly and that crucial CCTV evidence had been withheld, leading to the case to be reopened.
An investigation is ongoing, with two officers present during the shooting being questioned so far, but none of the officers have been suspended while under investigation or charged with any offense.
Devassine told the initial inquiry that he had been convinced that the 19-year-old El-Khalfaoui, who was reversing a vehicle at officers, would have “run over and killed” one of them. He said at the time that he was “devastated” by the incident.
The boy’s father said: “I told myself it can’t possibly be him, I took my phone and I saw it really is him. I couldn’t talk or breathe. I was in a state of shock.
“How can you put someone in the shop window when they have killed a kid of 19 whilst the investigation is going on? How far can you take indecency?”
A spokesperson for the Paris 2024 Olympics said Devassine had been hired via an agency and that the opening ceremony organizers had been given no information about his background.
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