Le Figaro Nantes
He remembers everything down to his discomfort in the fire truck.
On the night of April 1 to 2, this merchant in downtown Nantes was close to death.
While spending the evening with six of his friends, he had his biceps cut in the rue de l'Emery, Bouffay district, by an 18-year-old, already known for drug trafficking.
"
He clearly wanted to kill me by stabbing me
," says
Figaro
Brice *, 28 years old.
Three weeks after the events, he agreed to testify pending the trial of his attacker which will take place on May 11, in Nantes.
"
After a football tournament, we thought we were going to have a drink in a bar, near the Place du Pilori, before continuing the evening at the Colors
", relates the one who had nevertheless stopped frequenting this box of night.
Around 1 a.m., on the short journey between the two establishments, "
two young men start hovering around one of my friends
", with the desire to pick their pockets.
The band, which had drunk three or four glasses but was not in a pronounced state of intoxication, does not let it go and pushes them away.
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"I'm going to kill one tonight"
At that moment, "
one of the young people takes out a bladed knife about twenty centimeters and says: 'I'm going to kill one tonight'
".
After trying to hit two of them without succeeding, he finally goes to Brice: “
he tries to plant me in the chest.
So I put my arm.
He cut it completely to the bone
”.
The wound measures 24cm.
“
I see myself drained of my blood.
I sit in a corner and I tell my friends quite consciously that I will have to get a tourniquet because otherwise I will lose too much blood and I will die, ”he
explains in a calm tone.
"
I was telling my friends to tell my girlfriend I loved her, to tell my parents to move on
."
That night, a volunteer firefighter waiting in line at the nightclub saved him by giving him a sturdy tourniquet.
Help then arrived.
In the truck, Brice felt unwell again before waking up the next morning, in the operating room.
“
When I woke up, the surgeon explained to me that within half an hour, I was dead because I was losing too much blood.
He also asked himself the question of amputating my arm because it had not been irrigated for a certain time
, ”says the one who was operated on by
“elite”
doctors on duty that evening.
If he will only know in 18 months to what capacity he will be able to regain the use of his member, he shows great resilience three weeks after the fact: “
morally and mentally, I am not traumatized.
I don't have any anxiety, I'm not that scared
,” he confides serenely.
"
On a daily basis, it's super restrictive but I find it hard to complain about it because there are guys who are born without arms and didn't ask for anything.
Even if I recover at 50%, it does not matter.
»
However, he remains aware of the consequences that this will have in the future.
Heading towards six months of sick leave, the entrepreneur anticipates the financial galleys.
Friday, he must open a second restaurant in Angers: if he continues to work on it and to move there (by train or accompanied), he finds that his absence falls on his partner who connects the days to extension.
The 4 to 5 rehabilitation sessions per week also tire him.
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“The scale of violence has increased”
“
Behind all this, there are a lot of collateral victims.
I realized that we did not all have the same ability to get up when we passed close to a tragedy,
analyzes Brice, who came out in town three days later.
I have this ability to quickly move on to something else and in fact, I don't think about it, I don't have nightmares, but I have friends who are traumatized, who are being followed on this subject.
My girlfriend is having a lot of trouble, my parents…
”
“
Psychologically, it shocks images like that.
Yes, I went back to the center, life goes on, but we are much more careful.
We will be much more suspicious than before
, ”confirms one of his friends in connection with psychologists and present on the evening of the tragedy.
"
We are no longer safe,"
he said.
Brice shares this observation on insecurity in the city center.
“
It happened to me several times to get confused with these guys in these same streets, to tell them to get out.
Guys treat you, threaten you but then it stops.
There, the scale of violence has increased
”, observes this lover of Nantes, who deserted the metropolis for three years in the past, including two to study in La Rochelle and one year to travel around the world.
“
I don't agree that we started from zero in terms of insecurity and that today it's Tijuana.
For me, insecurity was already a problem 10 years ago, and it has become more pronounced.
In the big cities unfortunately, there has always been a certain delinquency
”, tempers the Nantes native.
I believe that we should rather fight for our city to become better than to leave it because we are afraid.
If I left her, I would leave them the land
Brice, merchant in the center of Nantes
Moreover, at no time would he see himself leaving his city of birth: “
I believe that we should rather fight so that our city becomes better than leaving it because we are afraid.
If I left her, I would leave the land to them.
I was born here, I was brought up in the Nantes style, I have a Nantes culture, this is my home and it will be until I decide.
It's not them who have no ties and could do that in any city that are going to make me leave my home.
»
On the evening of the assault, one of the two individuals was arrested by a security guard from the dancing establishment.
He immediately released the name of his friend, allowing the police to arrest him at home the next day: “
he is in pre-trial detention.
He is an 18-year-old, born in France, with a father of North African origin.
They [with his sidekick] were placed in a home with an apartment made available by an organization
, ”explains Brice, who is waiting for his trial that justice be done after this act.
“I think this young man is more dangerous to society than useful and that he belongs more in prison, at least not on our streets at the moment given his state of mind and his mentality.”
While waiting for May 11, where he should be accompanied by a "
big band of friends
" during the hearing, he wishes to salute the effective work of the police and justice, the rescue services, the medical teams, the firefighter voluntary... He is not angry with this nightclub bouncer equipped with tear gas for not having used it despite his request two seconds before taking the stab wound: "they know that if they
gas one , it can have repercussions and revenge... But suddenly we come to the law of the strongest and that's not what should happen in the center",
he concludes, after talking with the police the lack of means allocated to their missions.
*The first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned.