When the mother of his son, Amandine, offers him a dinner at the restaurant and a "family" walk in the woods, in the torpor of a summer evening in 2017, Jimmy hesitates.
But he ends up accepting.
"I wanted to spend time with my son", explains this Friday the young man with broad shoulders, in his wheelchair, on the fourth day of the trial of Amandine, tried for having tried to have him cut down in the forest of Bondy (Seine- St Denis).
The couple, who have not lived under the same roof since the birth of their child, three years earlier, are trying to patch things up.
“Amandine made me believe that we could be a family again.
We had to try to live again together at the start of the school year.
I wanted our child to have both parents. ”
Dinner at the Courtepaille in Livry-Gargan (Seine-Saint-Denis) is going “very well”.
At dessert time, Amandine leaves the table to go in her car.
"I imagine she's gone to phone her accomplices," Jimmy blows at the bar, in a gray T-shirt and black jeans.
After the meal, the couple goes by car to the forest of Bondy, near the Chemin de Coubron, in Clichy-sous-Bois.
According to estimates, it is between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. when Amandine, Jimmy and their son, in a stroller, enter a small paved alley.
It is pitch black.
A "little light" and a detonation
They then branch off onto a sandy path, under construction, access to which is closed to the public.
“To cross the metal barrier, we had to carry the stroller in pairs.
This is where Jimmy sees, at the end of the aisle, a "little light".
It is a bicycle, ridden by a man dressed all in black, with a hidden face.
Arrived at the height of the father, the man "said sorry and he shot," says Jimmy.
“I asked him why he did that.
He punched me in the mouth, with his fist or butt, I don't remember. ”
Jimmy falls backwards and realizes that he is very seriously affected.
“I couldn't get up anymore, I couldn't feel my legs anymore.
Jimmy doesn't know it yet, but the bullet severed his spine.
“I asked Amandine to call for help, but she couldn't reach them.
So I took out my phone and called 18, ”says Jimmy.
The Advocate General then points out that no call for help will be raised by the investigators on the phone of the accused.
"I didn't want to die in front of my son"
On the phone, the emergency services ask Jimmy to pass his companion over to them so that she can tell them their location.
“Amandine had to leave to go get the firefighters.
I begged her to take our son with her.
I was afraid the shooter would come back.
»But Amandine refuses.
"She leaves our son alone in his stroller, while I was dying," laments Jimmy.
“Standing in his stroller, my son was shouting:
Daddy!
Dad !
Dad !
»Jimmy answers him« moaning ».
“I didn't want to die in front of him.
I took a stone and held it in my hand until help arrived.
When the firefighters arrive, he asks them if his son is "safe" before falling into a coma.
In the evening, the SDPJ 93, seized of the investigations, quickly decides to place Amandine in police custody.
"I could not understand that a couple go for a walk around 9:30 pm with a child in a stroller in such a dismal, wet place, on a forest path under construction," explained the director of the investigation in front of the court.
Amandine confesses at the fourth hearing.
Confessions reiterated at his fifth hearing, in the presence of a lawyer.
“She seemed relieved.
She offered me a fairly sincere face in her regrets, ”says the policeman.
“She came back to the domestic violence she says she suffered.
She said she wanted to regain her freedom. ”
He claims to have been violent only once with Amandine
At the bar, Jimmy denounced Amandine's defense strategy.
“When I'm angry, I speak badly.
But physical violence is no.
»What about his conviction, after a complaint from Amandine?
“It happened once.
I grabbed her arm and hit her on the thigh.
I was sentenced, but exempted from punishment.
Jimmy says he suffered a lot not to see his son after their separation.
“I had no news, no photo, no call.
Indeed, I was harassing her because I wanted to hear from my son. ”
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Jimmy was saved thanks to the rapid intervention of the emergency services.
But he remained paraplegic.
After the tragedy, the child was placed with Amandine's father, Michel.
But when the latter, suspected of having participated in the financing of the assassination project, was imprisoned, the child was placed in foster care.
“I fought for over two and a half years to get my son back,” Jimmy said at the helm.
“I am disgusted for him: his mother is incarcerated, his maternal family is involved and his father is condemned to spend his life in a wheelchair.
His life was destroyed. ”