A 17-year-old teenager named Augustin presents himself in the press as a victim of a lynching after having wanted to protect two young girls on Friday, on Place Bellecour, in Lyon. However, her story is called into question by the version of a young girl, contacted by Europe 1, but also by an amateur video.
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The social media boom started with a Facebook post posted by Augustine's brother. He denounces an assault opposing five men to Augustin and affirms that the young man was "smashed for free". According to this message, Augustine would have broken teeth, a fractured jaw and affected neck.
Wave of reactions on social networks
Yet on the night of the incident, Friday, police and firefighters received no calls. Two days later, Sunday, Augustin lodged a complaint with the gendarmerie, triggering Monday the opening of a police investigation. But social networks did not wait for this step to get carried away. Monday, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône Alpes region, reacted on Twitter in particular by saluting the "admirable courage" of the young man.
The admirable courage of the young Augustine deserves that the violence of his aggressors be struck heavily. Place Bellecour cannot be abandoned to bands of savages. We must refuse this submission. #JusticePourAugustinhttps: //t.co/eeJu28hpCv
- Laurent Wauquiez (@laurentwauquiez) August 24, 2020#Augustin is a hero he fights against street harassment and the chick who was being harassed is too mean to say that Augustin he intervened for nothing, there for once it is patriarchy
Look at the tweets that she is taking the smallhttps: //t.co/pEATivXC8u
Europe 1 was able to discuss with one of the young girls, whom Augustin wanted to defend. This one delivered a version quite different from that presented by the young man. According to her, that evening, she was walking with a friend when two insistent young people did not attack them but approached them, asking them for their phone number. It is in this context that Augustine intervened. The tone then gradually rose between Augustin and the youth gang. One of the girls would then have intervened and Augustin would have received a punch. End of the story.
An amateur video that sows doubt
However, in the press, the boy says he fell knocked out to the ground. This is not what emerges from an amateur video: we see him standing and insulting the one who approaches him, saying that he wants to "remove a tooth".
Unlike Augustin's version, the young woman with whom we spoke explains that there was no "beating". She assures us that she intends to go to the police station on Tuesday afternoon, since the police have called for witnesses. CCTV cameras in Place Bellecour are also examined to find the author of the punch.