“I’m angry. I feel like it’s a constablewe should keep quiet, not talk about it.” Katia Chassagny lost her father just a year ago. Jean-Claude Chassagny has been fatally knocked down by one car driven by a police officer. But in recent months, his daughter explains that she has no longer heard from him.investigation and not being able to grieve.
Jean-Claude Chassagny, 82, fatally knocked down a year ago
The drama unfolded on Avenue du Maréchal Foch in Senlis. As he crossed over the pedestrian crossing opposite the Total stationJean-Claude Chassagny, 82, was hit by a police car. He won’t survive it.
That day, Katia Chassagny was at home with a friend when she saw two gendarmes come to her house. “I tried to call my father several times, he didn’t answer. When I saw these two gendarmes, I immediately understood,” remembers Katia.
The days that followed were trying for Jean-Claude Chassagny’s daughter. “The next day, they called me to the gendarmerie. I thought I would be able to collect my father’s personal belongings, including his keys. But they just wanted to question me. I had the impression that they wanted me to say that my father was old and in poor health. But that was far from the case.”
She insists, specifying that “despite his age he was in very good physical and mental shape”. “He walked 1.5 hours morning and evening, ate a balanced diet. He was very educated. He had a hobby of doing strength 6 crosswords, always thirsty for knowledge. He took his tablet on which he surfed every day. He was a good father and grandfather, he worked at Crozatier and finished his career at Servaire in Roissy.”
“I don’t know how things happened.”
Katia Chassagny deplores the fact of not having been able to follow developments in the investigation. “I was received by the Senlis prosecutor in February. He was very human, very empathetic. But since then, I have had no further news about the investigation. I don’t even know how it happened.”
Disarmed, she tried to find answers to her questions herself by returning to the site and looking for possible witnesses. “I went there. I tried to understand. I think my father had already crossed half of the road when he was hit by the car.
What pains the victim’s daughter the most is everything she hears about her father. “Some argue that he may have felt unwell, others that he may have fallen. But I don’t believe it. He was someone who still walked a lot. Sometimes I couldn’t even follow him. So when I hear that, it annoys me.”
“I don’t want this matter to be hushed up.”
Katia Chassagny would like to know the precise circumstances of her father’s disappearance. “I would like to not be left in the dark. I feel like I’m the only one fighting to know the truth.” And to continue: “I learned that the gendarme who knocked down my father continues to practice. I fear he will never be tried. I don’t want my father’s death to be forgotten just because it was a police officer who caused it. I don’t want this matter to be hushed up.”
Faced with the situation, she wrote a registered letter to the public prosecutor asking him to provide her with an update on the investigation.
The investigation is over
Contacted, the public prosecutor of Senlis explains that “the daughter of the deceased is accompanied by France Victimes 60, an association that she can contact for information on the investigation”. He assures that “the investigation is completed”, he has also instructed the gendarmes of the Amiens research section as well as France Victimes to inform Katia Chassagny. He also specifies that a hearing will take place “soon”.
