The Brussels public prosecutor’s office said no one will be charged over the death of a teenager who was run over by a police car in 2019, a case that garnered renewed attention during this year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
The investigating judge said no offense had been committed and there was insufficient evidence to indict someone, the prosecutor’s office added.
In August 2019, a 17-year-old boy called Mehdi Bouda died after being hit by a police car near the Belgian capital’s central Mont des Arts area.
According to the public prosecutor’s office statement on Thursday, the teenager was fleeing from officers who asked about his identity as part of a drug check. As he ran, he was hit by a police car driving at 95 kilometers an hour, which was on its way to the scene of a burglary.
According to a traffic expert who spoke with the investigators, the police car — which did not have its sirens turned on — would not have been able to avoid the teenager even if it had been driving at 50 kilometers per hour.
“No serious element indicates the existence of a criminal offense committed by the protagonists in the case,” the public prosecutor’s office said.
The teenager’s death prompted an outcry, with protesters on several occasions demanding “justice for Mehdi.” It received even greater attention because of this year’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations and their focus on racial profiling and police violence.
Amid the demonstrations this summer, Bouda’s brother Ayoub told Le Soir: “If his name hadn’t been Mehdi, his family … would have been entitled to an apology from the police, and from the mayor.”
He added: “And we would have had justice. The policeman who killed my brother would not have gone back to work.”