Angelina: the police officer suspected of fracturing her skull placed under formal investigation
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Seven years after the events, chief sergeant Laurent A. has been placed under formal investigation (mise en examen) over the baton blows that fractured Angelina’s skull on the sidelines of a Yellow Vests protest in Marseille in December 2018.
The events took place on Rue de la Glace, in the centre of Marseille, on 8 December 2018, on the sidelines of a Yellow Vests protest.
On 8 December 2018 in Marseille, Angelina, 19, was beaten by plainclothes police officers on the sidelines of a Yellow Vests protest in which she was not taking part. Her skull was fractured and her brain injured; she has been left with disabling after-effects.
On 23 April 2026, chief sergeant Laurent A., identified as the officer who struck the baton blows, was placed under formal investigation for “aggravated violence by a person vested with public authority, with weapons and in a group” and “failure to assist a person in danger”. Prosecutors had called for him to be held in pre-trial detention; he was ultimately placed under judicial supervision and barred from street duty.
He is the second officer to be placed under investigation over the violence against Angelina, after Vincent R., who was placed under judicial supervision in December 2025. In all, thirteen officers are now under investigation in the case. The investigation has also uncovered an organised code of silence: one officer admitted lying to the IGPN, the police’s internal affairs body, under pressure from his superiors and from the Alliance police union, to cover for his colleagues.