The State ordered to pay more than 100,000 euros to a demonstrator blinded by an LBD shot in 2009

The facts took place in 2009 in Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis). The State was condemned by the administrative justice, Thursday, February 16, to pay more than 100,000 euros in compensation for damages to a demonstrator blinded by the shooting of LBD (defense bullet launcher) of a police officer.

In criminal proceedings, the police officer found guilty of the shooting which hit Joachim Gatti had been sentenced on appeal, in 2018, to 18 months in prison suspended and 24 months of prohibition of carrying a weapon. The victim requested from the administrative justice a sum of approximately 500,000 euros in compensation for several damages.

Thursday, the administrative court of Montreuil condemned the State to pay “105,350 euros in compensation for the damage suffered”, according to a decision consulted by AFP. The judges notably admitted property damage linked to a loss of income.

The Showing of Reduced Harm

“The applicant justifies the fact that his state of health does not allow him henceforth to hope for a normal development of his professional life, in that his injury prevents him from exercising the professions of cameraman and editor which he previously occupied , as well as any professional activity requiring normal visual acuity, thus limiting its possibilities of professional retraining”write the judges.

Since the facts, the former cameraman has worked intermittently as a cook or educator. The judges also recognized a “permanent functional deficit”, the inability to return to a normal life observed after the consolidation of the state of health, aesthetic damage and suffering.

However, the administrative court reduced the amount of the damage, initially estimated at 150,500 euros, due to “the culpable recklessness of the victim” who took part in a “group having shown an aggressive attitude and then having been at the origin of violence against the police”.