The police tear gas grenade shattered the 14-year-old’s jaw and many of his teeth. The officer who fired it was taken into custody a week later and charged with violent mutilation, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Following surgery, the boy cannot speak and can only eat with a straw, his mother says.
Other adolescents have also suffered life-changing injuries blamed on police weaponry during nationwide protests by high school students demanding more funding for run-down schools. In the former mining town of Lens, a 15-year-old lost a hand in an incident involving a police stun grenade. In Tours, in the wine-making Loire region, the prosecutor there says a police riot-control round is suspected in the partial blinding of a 16-year-old.
