It was a mushroom outing like any other, with friends, this Wednesday October 31 in Cabasson, above Bormes-les-Mimosas. It turned into a tragedy for Donovan, a 38-year-old waiter, living on the Giens peninsula. “I went back down, basket in hand, towards my car. I thought I had stepped on a mine. My leg was almost completely gone, it was only hanging on by a thread. I shouted to my two friends for help, that's when I saw a hunter, 20 meters from me“.
“He shouted to me that I didn’t have a vest and I told him to come and help me otherwise I was going to die”
Agonizing, desperately trying to apply a tourniquet on his left leg with the strength of his hands, the young man calls for help. For only answer, the hunter, aged 82, insults her : “He shouted to me that I didn't have a vest, and I told him to come and help me tighten my sweater around my leg, that I was losing my weight, that I was going to die . It was incredible. It was one of his colleagues who came.“.
For many minutes, Donovan and his two friends tried to save his leg, which was bleeding profusely, with clothes and even a rope, without success. Transported by helicopter to Timone hospital in Marseille, Donovan has his lower left leg amputated.
“I have nothing against hunting but you have to stop after a certain age”
“I wasn't wearing a vest, it's true, but I was in a clear area and standing. I had arrived there before the start of the hunt, and I had not heard or seen the hunters or their dogs, otherwise I would have reported myself. I know the rules, I'm a hunter myself“.
What the young man denounces is the age of the shooter, 82 years old: “I have nothing against hunting, but you have to stop after a certain age. You have to be sure you are shooting game before pulling the trigger. If we start shooting at everyone who doesn't have vests and who moves in the mountains, there will be many victims. A 20 year old wouldn't have shot me“.
For his part, the author of the shot, in his first statements, maintains his version of the facts. In the absence of a vest worn by the victim in an area reported as the scene of a beat, he claims to have “seen” a wild boar.
