Gabriel Pontonnier, maimed by a police grenade
Published on
On 24 November 2018, during Act II of the Yellow Vests protests in Paris, Gabriel Pontonnier was seriously injured in the hand by the explosion of a GLI-F4 grenade (an explosive tear gas grenade). Nearly seven years after the events, the trial of the police officer who threw the grenade opens on 11 September 2025. At the request of the Pontonnier family, Index is publishing a digital reconstruction report to be presented in court to inform the proceedings.
- Incident date
- Location
- Paris (France)
- Victim(s)
- Gabriel Pontonnier (21 y.o.)
- Consequence(s)
- Mutilation
- Force(s) involved
- National Police, CRS
- Methods employed
- Explosive grenade
- Theme(s)
On 24 November 2018, the Pontonnier family travelled from the Sarthe to Paris to support the Yellow Vests movement. At nightfall, they found themselves on the Rond-point des Champs-Élysées, trapped by clashes and a police cordon that blocked every exit.
At around 6 pm, Florent Pontonnier, aged 30, was filming a line of CRS riot police on his smartphone. He was in a side alley, among a small group moving away from the police. His brother Gabriel, aged 21, was by his side. The video extracted from the phone captures a person shouting “Watch out!” several times. Then came a flash and a deafening blast: a GLI-F4 grenade had just exploded right next to the camera. Gabriel was seriously injured in his right hand. In the seconds that followed, Florent tried to help him. He can be heard shouting: “His hand is gone!”
Gabriel Pontonnier had three fingers and part of his right hand torn off by the explosion. His brother and his cousin were also injured in the legs and back. The judicial investigation, opened after the family filed a complaint, identified a CRS major, Jackie D., as the officer who threw the grenade.
The officer ordered to stand trial
Six years later, in December 2024, Jackie D. was ordered to stand trial before the criminal court (tribunal correctionnel) for “unintentional injuries resulting in more than three months’ incapacity for work”. The officer claims he acted in self-defence and followed the rules of engagement in force at the time.
At the request of the Pontonnier family and their lawyers, Index produced an analysis of the available videos and a digital 3D reconstruction of Major Jackie D.’s grenade throw. This three-minute video report, accompanied by a methodological appendix, aims to shed light on the precise circumstances in which the grenade that maimed Gabriel Pontonnier was thrown.
The video report was filed with the court by the Pontonnier family’s lawyers, to be shown at the hearing and inform the proceedings.
Following these events, the Interior Ministry withdrew GLI-F4 grenades from police use in 2020. They were replaced by the GM2L grenade, whose manufacturer, Alsetex, maintains that its operation is “identical”. In 2019, the Interior Ministry itself was already describing the GM2L as a grenade of “very similar power” to the GLI-F4. France is the only country in Europe to use explosive grenades for public order policing.