At the age of 48, Guillaume B. is “fitted for life” and suffers from disorganization disorders. He lost 30% of his hearing abilities on the sidelines of a clash between demonstrators and police. It was March 23, 2019, during act 19 of the “Yellow Vests”, on the Toulouse banks of the Canal du Midi. But, something rare in this type of case, which often ends with the “anonymous” questioning of the State before the administrative court, the official who fired the shot was identified by the General Inspectorate of the National Police ( IGPN). This police major will appear this Tuesday afternoon before the criminal court, during a “disorientated” trial in Montauban, for “willful injury”.
Fairly new too, the shot that injured Guillaume in the head did not come from an LBD but from a Cougar grenade launcher. This “big tube” equipment is used to eject cartridges of seven tear gas canisters supposed to create an unbreathable cloud to disperse a crowd.
That afternoon, two Cougar launchers fired. The first leaves in a bell, in accordance with the instructions. The second seems to go horizontally. “Thanks to several videos, using slow motion, we were able to reconstruct its trajectory”, explains Claire Dujardin, the victim’s lawyer. Beyond the compensation for his care and his permanent disability, his client “wants to understand” the reason for this tense shot.
A technical failure?
The policeman does not deny the facts. “This man was objectively hit and it’s obviously dramatic,” said his defender Laurent Boguet. If it turns out that his colleague’s shot was correct, then the incriminated trajectory was necessarily his. But he strongly disputes the qualification of the facts as intentional violence. “He was authorized to handle this weapon, acted on command from his superiors and above all he ‘did not lower his machine’, specifies ”lawyer who wishes to ‘discuss calmly’ on Tuesday and ”not exclude a technical failure at the time “of holster firing”.
Claire Dujardin believes on the contrary that, given the images, the police officer should have appeared before the assizes. She also intends to make this trial “that of these weapons of intermediate force, used by the police when they are extremely dangerous, injure, mutilate and can kill”.