The accident dates back nearly a year. On January 28, 2022, Aloyse Boehler, 63, “passionate about hunting and nature”, according to his lawyer, was in his watchtower in Achen, Moselle, when he was hit by a bullet fired by Henri Schoenhentz, with whom he had gone hunting.
The latter, 68, appeared Monday before the Sarreguemines court. He was on trial for manslaughter. During the hearing, he remained “in a form of denial”, underlined Me Coussy, the lawyer who defends the wife and the two children of the victim. He had however admitted the facts during his police custody but “he tended to retract” during the trial. “He does not assume”, also underlined the council, assuring that the shooter “was excluded from the hunts because he was known to be a bad hunter”.
The defense, for its part, pleaded for release, arguing that the bullet had hit the victim “by ricochet”, and that therefore it was “no longer a fault of security”, but “the fault of bad luck”. The defendant had explained that he had shot at “a deer” that he had “missed”, from a different watchtower from the one where Aloyse Boehler was, located 400 m away.
He had informed him of his missed shot, then at nightfall and having no news from his friend, he had gone to check the watchtower where he had found him unconscious, he had explained to the gendarmes. He then called a friend before calling the fire department, who arrived more than an hour and a half after the shooting.
“The worst punishment for a hunter”
According to Me Coussy, the reconstruction of the facts carried out in July showed that “the upper part of the victim’s watchtower was in the firing zone / line of sight of Mr. Schoenhentz at the time of the shot”.
A three-year suspended prison sentence, the confiscation of weapons and a definitive ban on hunting were finally required against Henri Schoenhentz. “We are very satisfied,” greeted the lawyer. These requisitions “meet our expectations, that is to say a ban on hunting, on taking up arms: it is the worst sanction for a hunter”.
The court will deliver its decision on February 27.