Demonstration in Tours: a 22-year-old young man accuses the police of having injured his eye, an investigation is opened

The Tours public prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday that it had opened an investigation after the complaint of a young TikToker who said he had been injured in the eye by the explosion of a "disencirclement grenade" launched by the police on Saturday, during Act III of the social mobilization.

“A complaint was received, the complainant mentioning an eye injury, I requested the opening of a procedure for acts of violence without ITT (total incapacity for work, editor's note) with a weapon”, indicated Wednesday the deputy public prosecutor of Tours, Delphine Amacher. “At this stage, the ITT is not yet known, the forensic institute is required,” she said.

Targeted by a “de-encirclement grenade”

Enzo Gimgembre, 22, a resident of Tours who describes himself as a TikToker, went to the demonstration on Saturday “to film,” he said. Until a “small group of CRS” broke away and a “de-encirclement grenade” was launched in its direction, he explains in the report of his complaint sent to AFP, confirming information from the New Republic. “The moment the grenade exploded, I collapsed,” he remembers, hit by a “piece of black rubber in my left eye.” Taken care of by street medics, he then went alone to the hospital, his eye red and swollen.

According to the medical certificate drawn up the same day, his left eye “sees the hand moving one meter away” attesting to a disturbance in his vision. Suffering from vomiting and difficulty breathing, the young man then spent “one of the worst nights of (his) life,” he added to AFP. “I still see blurry today and I still have pain, even if it gets better with the pills.” The young man also deplores having had to insist at length, despite the “intimidation”, for the police to take his complaint on Monday, after two prior refusals. He says he now relies on the city's cameras to obtain justice.

“no comment to make”

“We have no comment to make,” the Tours prefecture said on Wednesday. In Tours, Maël, a 16-year-old high school student from Tours, was blinded in one eye on September 30 during the blockade of an establishment. The IGPN investigation ruled out the hypotheses of an injury caused by a wall or a parking meter and established that two LBD shots had been carried out one minute apart by two police officers. One of them was indicted for “aggravated violence” and placed under judicial supervision and the other placed under assisted witness status.

According to a count established as of October 30, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) received 105 investigations, including 52 in the context of the high school movement, 48 for violence on October 17 and 18, and five for events on October 24, according to a source close to the matter.