French authorities have opened an investigation after footage emerged showing a police officer violently throwing a 29-year-old man to the ground in Carcassonne, renewing scrutiny over police violence days after a separate racism scandal involving officers in the southern city.
The incident occurred on 21 June during France’s Fête de la Musique. Video shows an officer grabbing Youssef E. from behind and throwing him onto the pavement, with his head appearing to strike the ground.
Youssef died 13 days later, on 3 July. Prosecutors have stressed that investigators have so far found no causal link between the incident and his death. An autopsy found no suspicious traumatic injuries and pointed instead towards a toxicological cause linked to a history of drug use.
His family also says it is not linking his death to the officer’s actions but wants the officer held accountable for the use of force.
The Marseille branch of France’s police watchdog, the IGPN, is investigating suspected intentional violence by a person holding public authority.
The case comes days after four municipal police officers in Carcassonne were suspended following the release of body-camera footage containing racist, misogynistic, homophobic and conspiratorial remarks.
The recordings, made during a November 2025 patrol and published this month, captured officers repeatedly using racist slurs against Black people, Arabs and migrants. One officer also discussed the prospect of a coup and dictatorship.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez described the comments as “unworthy” of the police uniform and ordered an inspection of Carcassonne’s municipal force.
One of the officers implicated in that scandal is also visible at the scene of the intervention involving Youssef, although he was not the officer who threw him to the ground.
The two cases have added to a longstanding debate in France over police violence, racial discrimination and accountability within law enforcement, issues repeatedly raised by rights organisations and brought into sharp focus by previous high-profile deaths and allegations of discriminatory policing.
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