Benjamin dreamed of joining the police.
He had passed the assistant policeman competition and was about to enter the school.
But an attack that occurred in Seine-et-Marne, more than fifteen months ago, put an end to his project.
Today, this 24-year-old resident of Val-d'Oise, who has changed career paths, is still looking for his attacker.
He is also appealing for witnesses, because he remains hopeful of finding the one who, in a single punch, changed his life.
It was February 3, 2021. Benjamin was a seller in the Gifi store, located in Servon, in the Eden open-air shopping center, in the ZAC du Noyer-aux-Perdrix, along the N 19. This after- noon there, an altercation broke out between two customers, about barrier gestures.
We are then in the midst of a Covid pandemic, it is the time of the British variant, more contagious than the original virus.
Wearing a mask and hydroalcoholic gel are obviously essential.
More than fifteen months after his attack, in Servon, Benjamin is looking for witnesses.
LP/Guénaèle Calant
One of the protagonists is a portly man in his fifties or sixties, very nervous, accompanied by a woman of the same age.
As the other client walks away, Benjamin, who has come to see what is going on, finds himself face to face with the couple.
Words are exchanged, the tone rises.
“I told them to get out of the store since the lady said there was nothing
but shit here
.
The couple started from the checkout side and then they came back right away,” Benjamin recalls.
He returns to the scene once a month
That's when the salesman gets punched in the face by the still pissed off customer.
This single blow to the jaw is so violent that it will have dramatic consequences.
Following this attack, Benjamin, who had broken teeth, will undergo no less than three operations, to repair his fractured jaw, but also to replace a pin and the screws.
“Just after hitting me, my attacker came out of the store with his wife.
My manager and my colleague followed them on foot.
They went to the parking lot but suddenly changed direction, so as not to show which car they had to leave in.
They went along the national 19, in the direction of Santeny, and we lost track of them near a hotel, "continues Benjamin, who filed a complaint two days later at the Moissy-Cramayel police station, for "willful violence followed by greater incapacity eight days."
But the investigation will not allow anyone to be arrested: the store's CCTV cameras were not working and the images captured by those of the shopping center were not usable.
“It has fallen into oblivion”, the young man despairs.
At the time, Benjamin was about to quit his job as a salesman at Gifi.
And for good reason: he was to join the police academy a few weeks after his attack.
“I was declared unfit, I had to give up.
“The young man, who still suffers from jaw pain, did not give up and took a professional turn, after a six-month stoppage for an accident at work.
After further training, he became a driving instructor in a driving school.
But impossible for him to forget the aggression.
“At least once a month, I travel between Val-d'Oise and Seine-et-Marne to go to the shopping center.
I'm sure my attacker lives in the area, he's a regular.
When he came out of the store, after hitting me, he acted like he knew the place very well, he didn't look lost.
Benjamin hopes that a client might remember that afternoon and contact the police station, to testify and help him identify his assailant.
The Moissy-Cramayel police station can be reached at 01.64.13.50.00.