A 17-year-old girl has been charged with 'manslaughter' after she accidentally shot down a 25-year-old Hike.
Last year, 80 hunting accidents, including seven fatalities, were recorded by the National Office for Biodiversity.
In addition, 92 incidents were counted last year, a figure probably greatly underestimated because many victims do not report.
It was almost ten years ago, near Bergerac, in the Dordogne.
A sunny October Sunday that Franck remembers like it was yesterday.
That day, this father, then 57 years old, had decided to go looking for mushrooms in a corner of which he has the secret, in the middle of a clearing.
“Shortly after my arrival, I started to hear dogs, it was clearly a hunt and I heard them approaching me,” he recalls.
Never mind, his basket is already overflowing with porcini mushrooms, so there's no need to linger.
To get back to his car, parked on the edge of the forest, the man takes care to remain visible while driving along the clearing.
Despite this precaution, he is stopped in his tracks by an isolated hunter.
“He appeared 15-20 meters from me, slightly to my right.
I immediately felt a bullet pass between my legs,
at the level of the thighs, then pierce my basket.
»
The years passed but Franck never forgot this burning sensation and then the shock wave and the detonation that followed.
“When I saw the porridge in my basket, the shredded mushrooms, I thought it could have been my thigh.
It's a miracle I got nothing.
Above all, he remembers meeting the hunter's gaze for "a few seconds" before he ran away.
If he is physically unscathed, Franck has nevertheless been very marked psychologically.
Insomnia, hypervigilance, work stoppages... "We rehash what happened, I have a disabled child, I said to myself 'what if', 'what if'..." His complaint was closed without continued, due to lack of evidence.
“I made the mistake of cleaning my basket and my pants before going to see the gendarmes,
he analyzes retrospectively.
As a result, they did not find any powder…”
Seven fatal accidents during the last hunting season
Ten years after the events, the case continues to haunt him.
If Franck has moved to Charente-Maritime, this mountain bike enthusiast claims to never be quiet when he pedals, especially on weekends.
Above all, each new accident revives his memories.
Like the one that happened this weekend, in Cantal: a 17-year-old girl was indicted on Tuesday for manslaughter after accidentally shooting a 25-year-old hiker.
According to the latest figures from the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB), 80 accidents including seven fatalities were recorded during the 2020-2021 season, including "three self-accidents", linked in particular to improper handling of the armed.
A figure that has fallen sharply over the past twenty years: in 1999-2000, there were 39 deaths.
Above all, specifies the OFB,
There remain a dozen victims killed by a stray bullet while riding a bicycle, driving their car or simply being at home.
This is what happened to Morgan Keane, 25, killed in the Lot in December 2020. "He was chopping wood in his garden with his little brother when he was shot in the chest," recalls Mila Sanchez, her childhood friend and neighbor.
The young man died instantly despite the rapid arrival of help.
And her friend clarified: “That day, he had a chainsaw in his hand, fluorescent noise-canceling headphones over his ears, so no one will tell us that he was mistaken for an animal, especially since he measures 1.90 m”.
A 25-year-old Lotois has been indicted for "manslaughter" and could be tried by the end of the year.
"I heard a loud fart"
Beyond the accidents, the OFB identified last year 92 “incidents”, shootings which end, for example, in houses without injuring people (52 last year) or in vehicles (26).
A figure probably far below the reality because the victims do not systematically make themselves known.
“I had other things to think about than going to the gendarmerie when it happened.
To tell the truth, I didn't even think about it, I wasn't injured,” recalls Joël, 44, from Lot.
Two years ago, while driving his car, a bullet hit the driver's door as he exited a tunnel.
"I heard a big fart," he recalls.
When I got out, I saw my door slammed in with a very clear impact on my side.
It was very impressive.
»
If the 40-year-old has not changed his habits since the accident, he admits having developed increased vigilance since then.
Including when he is at home, despite the two hectares of garden that surrounds his property.
“I've already come face to face with hunters at home, so inevitably, when you're in the hunting season, you avoid going out too much.
And when he does, he takes care to put on colorful clothes or to shout as soon as he hears shots.
Twenty daily testimonials
How many of these "incidents" have gone under the radar?
Hard to say.
If Franck filed a complaint when a bullet passed between his legs, he did not do so when, a few years earlier, while walking on a hiking trail, he threw himself into a ditch after a gunman fired in his direction.
With five friends of Morgan Keane, Mila Sanchez set up a collective “one day, a hunter”.
Together, they campaign for a stricter framework for hunting and identify all the stories of Internet users on the subject.
The collective receives around twenty messages daily: clashes with hunters, threats, slaughtered pets, even the most serious cases… “After Morgan's death, tongues started to loosen up, specifies the young woman.
But we never imagined that almost everyone in the countryside had an anecdote to tell about hunting.
»
Society
Hunting: After the death of a hiker, should the license be reformed to avoid accidents?
Society
Hiker killed in Cantal: The 17-year-old hunter indicted for "manslaughter"
Society
Accident
Hunters
Hunt
Manslaughter
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