What exactly happened when Mehdi died on a zebra crossing at Brussels Central Station?

It was supposed to be a nice summer evening with friends. Mehdi Bouda (17), a student at the Saint-Luc art school, went to the Mont des Arts in the center of Brussels on August 20, 2019. He had received a phone call from his older brother Ayoub, telling him that he should not be late home.

Inspectors MJ and QC were sent out that same evening in plain clothes to combat drug sales at the Kunstberg. When they approach two young people, they run away. One of them is Bouda, he walks through the Ravenstein Gallery, towards Central Station. The police give chase.

A kilometer further on, near Fontainas Square, KO and his colleague AR from the Anti-Robbery Brigade are at work. KO is behind the wheel. He is a police officer with 17 years of service in the Brussels Capital-Ixelles zone. KO has been convicted eight times in the past for traffic violations, including driving without insurance and driving without a license plate. He has received several traffic fines, and was also banned from driving for between 15 days and 1 month. In 2002, he was also given a one-year suspended prison sentence for a traffic violation. His last conviction dates from 2016, three years before the facts.

Report of burglary

KO and AR receive a report about a resident of a house on the other side of the city who hears noises on the ground floor. There is said to be a burglary in progress. They drive at high speed through the center of the city, up to the Kantersteen, close to Central Station. AR has put on the blue flashing lights. But the siren remains off, according to an analysis of the car’s black box and a witness statement.

Just at that moment, Mehdi Bouda walks out of the Ravenstein Gallery. He is still hesitating whether to take the stairs that go underground to the metro. But he chooses a different path, crossing the zebra crossing above ground. The light for pedestrians is red at that time. KO and AR arrive from the other side. A garbage truck is double parked in their path towards the burglary. They maneuver into the opposite lane so as not to lose speed. At that moment they are driving about 98 kilometers per hour on a street where the maximum speed is 30 kilometers per hour. According to KO, he took the time to analyze the situation, “in Brussels, the fact that a traffic light is red does not always guarantee that no pedestrian will pass,” he said in his statement the next day.

Bouda probably does not see the police car coming, the double-parked garbage truck is in the way. Conversely, the officers probably do not see Bouda walking.

The police car drives into the 17-year-old. His body is thrown 23 meters away. According to the traffic expert’s report, the officers could have avoided the young man if they had respected the speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour. At more than 90 kilometers per hour that was impossible.

Search and resuscitation

KO and AR stop their car further down the street. MJ and his colleague QC also arrive on site. They search the dying Bouda. “He was unconscious, but still breathing,” MJ described the circumstances during a statement a day later. He also found 11 grams of cannabis and 95 euros, he says. None of the four officers involved provide assistance to Bouda. That only happens five minutes later, when other officers arrive on the scene and take care of the teenager. That would be apparent from video footage – that one The standard could not view – and is supported by the QC statement saying that “another colleague initiated CPR”.

Not much later an ambulance arrives. Mehdi Bouda dies at 12:27 am, after more than half an hour of resuscitation attempts. His family was informed of his death around 11 a.m. the next day.