Antoine (
the first name has been changed
), 32, is one of the four police officers violently attacked last Sunday by a dozen young people in the city of Courtillières in Pantin, as evidenced by the video shot by his attackers and widely relayed on social networks.
Three suspects were taken into custody.
Antoine was not injured by the rain of projectiles thrown at the patrol.
But the day after the events, he is still in a state of shock.
"The shrink took a hit," he admits.
We haven't slept all night.
The policeman filed a complaint like his three other colleagues.
“We saw each other die,” he blurted out.
In the fragile Citroën Berlingo where they took refuge, Antoine had the feeling of being "as in a cage, surrounded by lions who were circling around us".
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The thirty-something was the captain this afternoon and he was getting ready with his three other colleagues to carry out a routine road check on rue des Courtillières.
When they get out of their vehicle, they notice that about fifty young people are shooting a rap clip.
The music escapes at full blast.
But they don't fall.
They are monopolized by the traffic control.
It is then that a man escapes from the group and approaches the police.
"He began to curse us and tell us that we were at their place and that we had nothing to do here," said the policeman.
We told them that we let them do the clip and that we only took care of the traffic control.
"
But the tension begins to rise.
A cross-country bike whirls around the patrol.
"She tries to run into a colleague", then a dozen young people stand out from the shoot to come into contact.
Four against ten, the police retreat.
To cover themselves, they draw their tear gas canister and show off their service weapon.
"It had its effect, they retreated while continuing to insult us," says Antoine.
"We know that we risk our lives every day"
During this time, the projectiles begin to fly over heads, paving stones, concrete blocks, bottles and trash bags.
Anything that comes into the hands of the attackers does the trick.
Some objects brush against faces, but no one is hurt.
"Kill them, kill them, these gangs of dogs!"
», They hear several times in the flood of insults.
"They were really there to make cops", is persuaded the skipper.
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The four officials manage to fall back into the Berlingo.
Antoine climbs in front, on the passenger side, his colleague at the wheel turns on the ignition and the attackers move away.
They went after the vehicle.
Two side windows did not resist.
The reinforcements of six crews requested have not yet arrived on site when the Berlingo manages to extricate itself from the nest.
Antoine is not a novice, he admits however that "in ten years he has not experienced such shocking intervention".
In office for three years at the Pantin police station, he knows that Les Courtillières is a sensitive site. “This is not the first time that we have been taken to task.
We know that at Courtillières you have to go there in numbers.
But it's our job.
We also know that this is not the last time that we will find ourselves in this situation and that we risk our lives every day.
"