Overview
- Mathis, 19, was struck around 4:50 a.m. on boulevard de la Liberté after a car ran a red light at high speed during a refusal to obey a police stop.
- The driver, 31, fled on foot and was arrested a few hundred meters away, placed in custody, and has contested the allegations, according to the Lille prosecutor.
- An investigating magistrate has been seized for homicide routier and refus d’obtempérer, and the public prosecutor has requested the suspect’s pretrial detention.
- Police and media reports cite suspicion of nitrous oxide use, a substance that is hard to confirm after the fact, with unions urging stronger countermeasures.
- Reporting identifies the suspect as a multirecidivist with a canceled license, and the case has drawn political reactions and tributes from the victim’s community.