Four people arrested Thursday, in the investigation into the filming of a rap clip which degenerated into violence against police officers and firefighters and caused the fire of a building in the suburbs of Lyon, were released without charge, the prosecution announced on Saturday.
An 18-year-old local rapper behind the clip, known under the name BFK.16, was simply placed under the status of witness assisted by an investigating judge after 48 hours of police custody, the magistrate “considering the charges brought against him insufficient”, specified the Lyon prosecutor’s office which had requested a judicial review for him.
The three others were also released without any charges being brought against them, according to the prosecution, which had opened a judicial investigation for “participation in a group with a view to committing violence and damage” as well as “degradation and destruction of the property of others by dangerous means and aggravated violence”.
Several apartments burned
On Saturday, November 8, in the middle of the afternoon in Rillieux-la-Pape, 20 to 30 people, some masked, gathered to shoot, without authorization, a music video with the young rapper.
As part of this filming, some people set off fireworks. Police officers wanted to intervene but were targeted by the protagonists of the clip, detailed a police source.
While the officers were sheltering in the gable of a building, one of the fireworks fired in their direction landed on the balcony of an apartment which caught fire and the fire spread to four other apartments. Some 70 deployed firefighters were also targeted by projectiles, like the police.
“The investigation will continue in order to identify the perpetrators of these acts,” the prosecution concluded on Saturday.