The Isère assize court sentenced 34-year-old Ouadia Kaouass to twelve years in firm prison for a 2022 car chase in Grenoble that killed his 18-year-old girlfriend by police gunfire. The Moroccan national was found guilty on multiple charges but acquitted of attempted murder on four policemen. The sentence falls short of the twenty years sought by the prosecutor.
Ouadia Kaouass had been on trial for a week for attempted murder on a public authority figure following a frantic chase in October 2022 in Grenoble. Driving a car with his girlfriend aboard, he refused to comply with a police check, drove under the influence of drugs, and possessed a lethal weapon. During the escape, he fired several warning shots and tried to run over a policeman, according to prosecutor Étienne Manteaux.
Unaware of the passenger, the police fired back, fatally wounding her in the neck in a dead-end street. Kaouass, with a dozen prior convictions, was acquitted of attempted murder but found guilty on the other charges. At the verdict, the defendant remained calm in his glass booth, with no reaction from the public that included about fifteen policemen as civil parties.
The IGPN probe into the young woman's death was closed without action by the prosecutor's office. Another judicial investigation is ongoing, with the policemen listed as assisted witnesses.
