One of the participants would have accidentally shot the 48-year-old diver off the coast of Les Sables-d'Olonne (Vendée), according to the first findings of the investigation entrusted to the maritime gendarmerie brigade. His widow testifies on BFMTV.
A dramatic accident with still unclear circumstances. Monday October 28, while participating in an underwater hunting session off the coast of Les Sables-d'Olonne in the Vendée department, a 48-year-old freediver, Benjamin Brisson, was fatally hit by gunfire. an arrow from a harpoon coming from another of the participants.
As revealed by Ouest-France, an investigation into involuntary homicide was entrusted by the city's prosecutor's office to the maritime gendarmerie brigade.
A few days later with BFMTV, the widow of this entrepreneur and father of three children, Marine Brisson, recounts the last moments of her late husband. “He was with three friends, he was going hunting. They had gone to fish for royal sea bream,” she says.
“The shock is terrible, every time the gendarmerie calls me, I always hope that they will tell me that they have the wrong person,” she adds.
Global celebrity
The victim is anything but a stranger in the world of underwater fishing. “Benjamin was world-famous in underwater hunting. It was more than a passion, it was what made him tick,” confirms Marine Brisson.
The day after the tragedy, it was the specialized media Le Chasseur sous-marin which confirmed the identity of the person who immortalized his underwater sessions on his Youtube channel “Akam Spearfishing”, to which 15,000 people were subscribed.
At BFMTV, the creator of the media, Hugues Maldent, confirms that incidents of this type remain extremely rare, while around ten victims are recorded annually.
“About half of them die from drowning following syncope, the other half, unfortunately, are from collisions with boats, particularly propellers. Crossbow accidents are something truly extremely rare, which happens once every 10 or 20 years,” he explains.
According to Ouest-France, the man behind the fatal shot, shocked, was taken care of by emergency services.
