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Issam El Khalfaoui didn’t expect this call during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. It was his sister, telling him that the police officer who killed his son was on TV, showing off his BMX skills for audiences around the world.
“I could tell in her voice that she was wrecked,” El Khalfaoui told The Associated Press. “I stayed frozen, thinking: that can’t be.”
The officer’s participation in the Paris Olympics ceremony is sparking renewed outcry against killings by police in France, particularly of young people who are Arab and Black, and demands for 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 underway, and the officer is not on leave in the meantime.
The officer, Romain Devassine, is an amateur BMX rider who was among those performing on floating platforms on the Seine River for the Olympics opening ceremony, according to French news 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 themselves.
The officer's lawyer and the Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
After his sister’s call, Issam El Khalfaoui decided to share his outrage in an opinion blog he submitted to the French investigative news website Mediapart this week. “I’m extremely curious to know who allowed this man to go up to the stage,” he wrote.
Paris 2024 Olympics organizing committee spokesperson Anne Descamps said Tuesday that performers in the opening ceremony were hired by an outside production agency and that “selection is based on their creative skills.’’
During the fatal traffic stop, Souheil El Khalfaoui started backing up his vehicle at one point, according to the investigation by internal police agency IGPN. Documents from that investigation seen by the AP said El Khalfaoui endangered the life of another officer by backing up, and in response, Devassine shot El Khalfaoui in the chest, killing him.
Souheil was stopped for running away from a previous stop the day before.
The family and its lawyers say the internal police investigation had numerous problems: CCTV footage from four cameras at nearby businesses have been lost, some key witnesses were never questioned, and the officer was not arrested immediately but was allowed to go free right after the killing, which is unusual in France.
While not denying that Souheil was trying to escape the traffic stop, his family questions the police version that he endangered an officer’s life.
“A lot of people criticized that Souheil didn’t stop,” Issam El Khalfaoui told the AP. “He didn’t, but that doesn’t mean he had to die.”
The Khalfaoui family says a deeper issue ties them to other families who have lost loved ones to police killings in recent years: Since 2017, French police have had increased latitude to use their firearms.
A 2023 study by police experts showed deadly police shootings at people in cars have increased sixfold since 2017.
“When we allow officers to shoot more, we necessarily accept there will be more people killed,” said Sebastian Roché, a criminologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and one of the writers of the study. “The law allows for shooting at people who are not a threat and did not previously commit a crime but are thought of possibly committing one in the future.”
Police unions say officers are facing increasing dangers.
“Police’s most dangerous mission right now is a traffic stop,” said Jean-Christophe Couvy, general-secretary of the Unité police union. “We’re facing people sometimes for whom human life doesn’t 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 killing of another French teen of North African descent, 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb last year caused major rioting as demonstrators called out racism and police brutality across France.
The revelation about the officer in the Olympics ceremony has rekindled anger and grief among other families of those killed by police.
“It’s not just me and my son’s story,” Issam El Khalfaoui said. “I have little hope for how this will end, but I don’t want this to happen again to other people.”
