Military police officer Héctor Jesús Guerrero was prosecuted on Tuesday for causing “extremely severe injuries” to photojournalist Pablo Grillo during a protest in March. Federal judge María Servini also prosecuted him for deliberately using his tear gas rifle in a prohibited way against Grillo and five other people that day.

Grillo’s skull was fractured so badly that he lost brain mass when Guerrero shot him in the head with a tear gas canister on March 12. He survived, but spent nearly three months in intensive care. He has been in rehab since June to recover from the brain damage, which affected his mental faculties and ability to walk, eat and speak.

Grillo’s case became an emblem for rising police brutality against protesters and journalists during President Javier Milei’s government, with the United Nations expressing particular concern about him.

Guerrero will not be placed in pre-trial detention, but Servini froze AR$203 million of his assets and forbade him from leaving the country.

Servini ruled that video evidence proves it was Guerrero who fired the shot that injured Grillo, and that in doing so, he knowingly broke the regulations for use of that kind of gun. Her ruling said that he did not respect the requirement to fire the weapon at a 45-degree angle, “knowing that his actions could risk the physical integrity or even the life of the people who were in front of him.”

“The images show without a doubt that Guerrero fired the shot in a non-regulatory way, in the direction in which the protesters were standing, with clear visibility,” the ruling said.

Guerrero also shot the gun correctly several times during the protest, showing that he knew how to use the gun correctly and decided to shoot Grillo anyway, despite knowing the harm it could cause, the ruling added.

Servini also noted that on March 21, just days after the incident, he instructed fellow agents in a shooting class, demonstrating the level of his training in use of the weapon.

The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS, by its Spanish initials), which is part of Grillo’s legal team, said that Servini’s ruling “proves that Guerrero shot several times in a non-regulatory manner without any of his superiors intervening to stop him.”

Naval police officer Sebastián Martinez was also prosecuted on Tuesday for shooting protester Jonathan Navarro in one eye during the same protest, injuring him so badly that he lost the eye. 

The protest

On March 12, retirees participating in their regular Wednesday afternoon protests for better pensions outside Argentina’s Congress were joined by organized groups of football fans. Police cracked down on the demonstration, while protesters hurled stones and set fire to dumpsters. 

Human rights organization the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria called the crackdown “the most brutal and violent” police repression to take place since the 2001 crisis. According to their tally, at least 672 people were injured and 114 were arrested, including a 12 and a 14-year-old who were walking through the square on their way home from school.