"
It's people I respect, I buy their calendar every year
": despite his assurances, a 35-year-old man was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Lyon criminal court for aggravated violence with use of a weapon against firefighters.
Francisco E., who appeared in custody, will remain behind bars.
His sentence is accompanied by a probationary suspension of 6 months and an obligation of care.
Read also: A firefighter attacked with an ax in Lyon
This morning of Sunday, October 4, the firefighters of the center of Lyon Rochat sweep the surroundings of their barracks when they hear cries.
A man has just grabbed an ax from his car and is walking towards a nearby bar.
Francisco E. wants to “
calm two North Africans who have disrespected
” his companion at the time, against the backdrop of a dispute over the music played in the bistro where they have just spent part of the night.
With their shovels and brooms, four firefighters try to block his path while trying to reason with him.
"
I'm going to pull out a Kalashnikov and I'm going to shoot you
», Launches the man who approaches them.
As they try to subdue them, aided by four colleagues alerted by the noise, one of the firefighters is hit on the head with an ax, leaving an 11-centimeter scar on his head.
After his arrest by the police called in for reinforcement, the analyzes will show 1.6 grams of alcohol per liter of blood in the attacker.
Already convicted nine times in the past for driving under the influence of alcohol and without a license, this is the first time that the defendant has appeared for violence.
For his lawyer, it is not "
the firefighters who were targeted as an institution, only people who got in the way of a man who wanted to defend the somewhat tarnished honor of his companion
."
"
If the firefighters had not intervened, he would perhaps have caused carnage in the bar, and we would be sitting down,
" said Rémy Chabbouh, national secretary of South-SDIS, who called for "
an exemplary sentence
" in the face of the rise in attacks on firefighters ”.
“
One every three hours in the country,
” he said, basing himself on figures from the National Observatory on Delinquency and Criminal Responses.
