France, Jan. 19 -- El Hacen Diarra, 35, died Wednesday night in a Paris police station where he had been taken after police saw him allegedly rolling a joint, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The family has filed a legal complaint, accusing police of "intentional violence that led to a death", their lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told the French news agency AFP on Saturday.

Police said they arrested Diarra outside the migrant residence where he had been living for several months after he refused to be searched when they saw him "roll a cannabis joint", the prosecutor's office said.

Police reported that Diarra "fell to the ground" when he was arrested, bringing two officers down with him, and one officer said he used a taser on Diarr...