On March 23, 2019 in Toulouse, Guillaume B., a 48-year-old amateur videographer, was seriously injured in the head by a shot from a grenade launcher, on the sidelines of act 19 of the “yellow vests”. The police major who fired the shot was sentenced on Tuesday to a suspended six-month prison sentence by the Montauban criminal court, where his trial had been “out of place”. This sentence is accompanied by a ban on carrying a weapon for six months, as requested by the prosecution.
During the hearing in May, Montauban prosecutor Bruno Sauvage considered that the criminal qualification of “intentional blows and injuries” was justified because the shooting was “not legal”. It had been carried out at head height, during clashes on the banks of the Canal du Midi, while these grenades – which in fact expel several studs of tear gas to disperse a crowd – should normally be fired bell.
Guillaume B., who still suffers from cognitive sequelae, has lost 30% of his hearing abilities.