Maiming of Gabriel Pontonnier: the CRS officer acquitted at first instance
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Nearly seven years after the events, the CRS riot police major implicated in the maiming of Gabriel Pontonnier’s right hand has been acquitted at first instance.
On 17 October 2025, the Paris criminal court (tribunal correctionnel) acquitted a CRS major charged with “assault resulting in permanent mutilation” for maiming Gabriel Pontonnier’s right hand.
The events date back to 8 December 2018, during Act IV of the Yellow Vests protests. Gabriel Pontonnier, then aged 21, was leaving a demonstration on the Champs-Élysées when Major Jacky D. threw a GLI-F4 grenade (an explosive tear gas grenade) in his direction. Seriously injured by the blast, Gabriel Pontonnier had three fingers torn from his right hand.
At the hearing, at the request of the Pontonnier family’s lawyers, the court screened Index’s reconstruction of the events. Prosecutors had called for a one-year suspended sentence for the officer, arguing that throwing the grenade was “neither necessary nor proportionate”.
The judges nevertheless found that the officer had followed the rules and acted in a situation of “imminent danger” to his unit, which justified the use of force. The GLI-F4, which contains a TNT charge, was withdrawn from service by the Interior Ministry in 2020 because of how dangerous it is.