- Saturday, February 1, in Montpellier, act 64 of "yellow vests" was peppered with several incidents.
- A man in a wheelchair was taken care of there by “street medics” then by the firefighters, but the origin of his medical problems gives rise to contradictory versions.
- 20 Minutes looks back at the course of events with the various witnesses to the scene.
If several incidents punctuated Act 64 of "yellow vests" in Montpellier - which notably gave rise to around twenty arrests and the use of a water cannon on the Place de la Comédie -, the evacuation , in the middle of the street, of a man in a wheelchair particularly marked the spirits.
A video and a photo, relayed separately but with a significant echo on social networks, evoke two different versions of the facts. “A man in a wheelchair loses consciousness in Montpellier because of the tear gas. While the street medics come to his rescue, the cops gas again while the man is on the ground, "says the legend of a short sequence, showing" street medics "(volunteer rescuers) carrying a man of his wheelchair to a stretcher, just before tear gas canisters land next to them and smoke covers this street corner.
A man in a wheelchair loses consciousness in Montpellier due to tear gas.
While the street-medics come to his rescue, the cops gas again while the man is on the ground. # Acte64pic.twitter.com / 9Gs8W0gTxa
A Facebook publication shared more than 1,500 times shows the empty wheelchair in front of a fire engine, while claiming that "a disabled person in a wheelchair [was] overturned by a CRS charge in Montpellier" before to be "found inanimate when [rescuers] arrive. "
FAKE OFF
The viral video was indeed shot in Montpellier, Saturday, February 1, rue des Etuves, close to the Place de la Comédie. It was first broadcast live on the Facebook account of the daily Midi-Libre , before being shortened and taken up by other pages, without mentioning its origin.
"We often see this man in a wheelchair during the demonstrations in Montpellier," said the Midi-Libre journalist present on the spot. "At that time, the CRS were really much higher, on the Place de la Comédie, so he was not beaten by the police and was not charged. He simply had to suffocate because of the tear gas, because there was a lot of it in the air, and passed out, ”he continues.
If the use of tear gas by the police was particularly important that day, according to the photographer Carlos de Brito, who covered the demonstration, a grenade was in fact launched, at this precise moment, to facilitate an arrest which took place a few meters further: "It was almost incredible: a CRS ran across the Place de la Comédie to stop a man, whom he finally caught up with in front of Yam's café [at the corner of rue des Etuves]. There, it left in fight between demonstrators and police forces, who struck with batons while everyone pushed. "
A scene visible shortly after 3'55'20 on the live video of the Vécu site, where we indeed see a man dressed in black chased by a police officer, before being arrested near the cafe in question, a hundred meters from where the man in the wheelchair is.
"He was not beaten"
“To evacuate the demonstrators and facilitate the arrest by protecting their colleagues, the CRS therefore sent several tear gas canisters, it was untenable. Further, I met the street medics evacuating this gentleman who was in respiratory distress: he was unconscious and did not move. But he was not beaten and he was not targeted, ”adds Carlos de Brito.
Sophie, one of the “street medics” who spoke on this occasion, also specifies at 20 Minutes : “we had taken care of him for the first time about ten minutes before because he was inconvenienced [by the gas]. We had advised him to take shelter but he wanted to return to demonstrate, he collapsed suddenly fleeing the gas in front of us. Her loss of consciousness was sudden. I don't know why he suddenly became unconscious, or if he had other health problems. ”
Another “street medic” who took care of him tells us that “he was already unconscious in his chair when my team intervened: he could not breathe, he was in respiratory distress. We got him out of the chair and we tried to take his pulse, then we called the firefighters but they explained to us that they couldn't move, so we had to join them on the other side of the square. the comedy. "
The images shot by the local media “La mule du pape” also allow us to observe, from a different angle, the course of events during the transfer of man to the stretcher. From 12'56, in the video below, we can clearly see the cloud of smoke at the level of the cafe in Place de la Comédie, and the arrival, next to the man in a wheelchair, of a tear gas canister, which arouses the indignation of a man shouting “Oh! There is a disabled person on the ground! Remove the gas! "
"He was starting to wake up when we got near the fire truck"
A few seconds later, when the "street medics" started to evacuate it, a woman launched: "Stop! It must be evacuated to the tourist office, I had the firemen on the phone ”. The journalist of "La mule du pape" present at that time and during part of the evacuation specifies: "The streets medics were worried, they wondered if it was necessary to make a cardiac massage since it did not move not at all. I accompanied them during part of the evacuation, they had to go around the small streets to get back to the other side of the Place de la Comédie ”.
This is shown in the photos taken by Carlos de Brito during the transport of the man, until he arrived at the point of care of the firefighters, at the intersection of Boulevard Sarrail and Passage Bruyas, near the tourism office. Or the short video posted on the page "The Yellow Wall - injured yellow vests".
And this is also confirmed by one of the street medics present in the group: "There was too much gas in the square so we took a detour through the small streets and once arrived at the top, at the level McDonald's, a cord of CRS blocked our passage but we forced to pass. The man in the wheelchair was starting to wake up when we got to the fire truck, they took care of him and when I came back thirty minutes later, he was better, he was talking, he was awake. "
Contacted by 20 Minutes , the firefighters of Hérault explain not being able to say more about his diagnosis, out of respect for medical confidentiality, but indicate "not having had any feedback on the fact that the injury of this gentleman was linked with tear gas. "
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