A year and a half has passed, but the emotion is still palpable in Anthony’s voice when the gendarme mentions May 21, 2021. That day, this 32-year-old soldier is not working. He is with his companion, pregnant, in their accommodation located inside the barracks of Chapelle-sur-Erdre (Loire-Atlantique). Suddenly, he learns that a radicalized man, who has stolen the weapon of a municipal policewoman after having stabbed her, is heading towards the gendarmerie. He took refuge in an apartment near the barracks and kidnapped a young woman. A few minutes later, Anthony sees the suspect jump from the balcony, advance towards his colleagues and open fire. He grabs his service weapon and shoots at him from the living room window. The attacker is neutralized by one of his colleagues. He was arrested before dying of his injuries.
Anthony comes out of it without physical injury, but the psychological trauma is very present. Once the adrenaline has subsided, the young man thinks, begins to think “about everything that could have happened”, he tells 20 minutes. He feels guilty vis-à-vis his colleagues injured during the shooting. “I was very angry with myself for not having been able to neutralize him before he touched them. He feels fear, too, when he approaches his window, realizes that “it’s not going too well”. It took him some time to realize that he was a “victim but psychological”.
“We know the positive virtues of sport”
His hierarchy then offered him to integrate the device for the reconstruction of injured people through sport. A program set up in 1997 “following the increase in the number of injuries within the institution”, explains to 20 minutes his referent, Lieutenant Franck Martineau. Each year, approximately 70 gendarmes take part in one of the four courses developed around four themes: the sea, the mountains, horse riding and the family. They are organized twice a year and each host about ten soldiers. Objective: to allow them to rebuild themselves psychologically and to freely share their experience. “We know the positive virtues of sport,” emphasizes Lieutenant Martineau. Through the proposed activities, we help them regain self-confidence and the autonomy they may have lost. We also try to facilitate their return to work. »
For his part, Anthony followed a training course for military reconstruction of wounded through sport and a course organized by the gendarmerie, which is called “Spirit of rope”, during which he participated, alongside other wounded gendarmes, to mountain activities. “Sport loosens tongues,” he observes. Speech is a little freer after a workout. “Between gendarmes who have experienced “similar things”, it is easier to indulge, to “talk about what we feel”, to “crack”, to evoke the “ordeals” crossed. “We feel like they understand us. »
“Show recognition of the institution”
Above all, Anthony feels “accompanied” over time by the gendarmerie. The young man returned to work after his paternity leave. “This device is also a way of showing the recognition of the institution”, notes Lieutenant Franck Martineau. This Tuesday, around sixty gendarmes injured in service, and who have followed the reconstruction course, are also invited to the general management of the gendarmerie, where they will be received by the senior hierarchy on the occasion of a day which highlights this device. If Anthony is feeling better today, the young dad has asked to leave the La Chapelle-sur-Erdre brigade, in order to definitely move on “to something else”.