On Friday 2 October 2026, outside the lycée Jean-Moulin in Port-de-Bouc (Bouches-du-Rhône), lycée pupils gather. A video, shot by a witness and shared on social media, shows a municipal police car making a U-turn, brushing past young people gathered around a rubbish skip (ICI), then accelerating towards a small group of pupils, who run away (Actu17, ICI).
According to the town hall, the head of the municipal police, alone in the vehicle, went to the spot after rubbish bins were set on fire the day before outside the lycée Charles-Mongrand, another lycée in the town (Actu17). The town hall says he first intervened to avoid a container fire that lycée pupils were about to start, then that he accelerated “disproportionately” (translated); it calls the event “deeply shocking” (translated) and its chief of staff considers that the facts were “firmly condemned by the elected officials” (translated) (ICI, Actu17).
The head of the service is suspended as a precaution by a letter from the mayor on the evening of Wednesday 7 October, and is due to be heard on Friday 9 October at a preliminary interview before a disciplinary sanction; the sanction under consideration ranges, according to the chief of staff cited by Actu17, from a reprimand to demotion, with the elected officials leaning rather towards a suspension of several days to several months (Actu17, ICI). Marsactu revealed the information, according to ICI and Actu17: its article could not be read. As of the morning of 9 October, no complaint or judicial investigation was reported in the sources read (situation on 9 October: see below). A municipal police force is classed here among law enforcement.
Follow-up
On 9 October, according to Marsactu, the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor’s office announces to it that it has opened an investigation into “counts of aggravated violence and endangering the life of others” (translated); the mayor, contacted, did not wish to comment (article partly read, access reserved for subscribers). The same day, according to France 3 Provence-Alpes, the town hall announces that it is suspending the officer as a precaution, accused of having driven his car at three lycée pupils, and that it has opened an administrative inquiry before starting a disciplinary procedure; the suspension decision had been signed by the mayor on 7 October. In a press release, the Town writes: “This isolated act, foreign to the instructions given by his hierarchy, is firmly condemned by the Municipality” (translated) and that these serious acts run counter to the missions of the municipal police, “aimed in particular at prevention and public tranquillity, and not at endangering citizens, moreover minors” (translated). No complaint from lycée pupils, no formal placement under investigation and no disciplinary decision is reported in the sources read (the outcome of the preliminary interview planned for 9 October is not known).