Death of Gaye Camara: the self-defence claim called into question
Published on
In partnership with Disclose, Index reconstructed the events that led to the death of Gaye Camara, aged 26, during a police operation in January 2018. Backed by 3D modelling, the investigation calls into question the official account: that the police officer who fired the shot acted in self-defence.
- Incident date
- Location
- Épinay-sur-Seine (France)
- Victim(s)
- Gaye Camara
- Consequence(s)
- Death
- Force(s) involved
- National Police
- Methods employed
- Firearm
- Partner(s)
- Disclose
16 January 2018, Épinay-sur-Seine. At around 11:55 pm, a vehicle crashed into a fast-food restaurant on Rue de Paris. Its driver – Gaye Camara, a 26-year-old Black man – had just been shot in the head while trying to evade arrest by the police. He died the following day.
An inquiry was opened, but it ended with the case being dismissed (non-lieu). The police officer who fired the shot claimed self-defence: he said he fired as the vehicle was “charging at him”.
No reconstruction of the events was carried out during the judicial investigation. In partnership with the investigative media outlet Disclose, Index conducted a counter-investigation based on 3D modelling. Its findings cast doubt on the officer’s claim of self-defence.
Conclusions
According to the available data, the police officer who shot Gaye Camara in the head was between 5 and 9 metres from the vehicle when he opened fire on the windscreen.
Moreover, at the moment he fired, the police officer was not facing the vehicle: the trajectory of his bullet forms a 38° angle with the vehicle’s longitudinal axis.
From a legal standpoint, these two points may call into question whether self-defence applies in the killing of Gaye Camara.
For a claim of self-defence to succeed, the law requires three conditions: the response to a real attack must be necessary, simultaneous, and proportionate. The shooting distance, the fact that the police officer was not facing the vehicle when he fired, and the fact that he fired a shot that would in all likelihood be fatal to the driver all raise questions about whether the officer’s act qualifies as self-defence as defined by law.
Expert report
To complement its investigation, Index is publishing an independent expert report in PDF format, which provides further details on its findings and on the method used.