Five decrees signed by the prefect of Aude between November 22 and December 2 recorded the awarding of bronze medals for acts of courage and dedication to three paratroopers of the 3rd RPIMa, to six police officers, and to a gendarme for their interventions during multiple news events that occurred in Carcassonne, Narbonne, and Coursan.
Knife attack, paratroopers in the spotlight
The first decree, signed by the prefect of Aude on November 22, honors three soldiers from the 3e parachute regiment of marine infantry (3e RPIMa): on the night of Saturday October 19 to Sunday October 20, 2024, in Carcassonne, the soldier of 1re Class Benjamin Menard-Foligné, Corporal Romain Tomasello and Master Corporal Jean-Baptiste Gestin were in the right place at the right time. On Boulevard Barbès, around 3 a.m., the three paratroopers intervened “to help” to a person attacked with a knife: the victim, aged 17, had suffered two blows to the shoulder, before being treated and transported to the Carcassonne hospital center; on October 20, another young woman, aged 23, acquaintance of the attacked teenager, was arrested.
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She was to be released after 48 hours of police custody at the Carcassonne police station, the public prosecutor then specifying that “additional investigations” were necessary “to establish his guilt, or not”. No further action is known on this affair, but Colonel Colomban de Pocharra, the commander of the “3”, did propose that the three soldiers be honored, a request satisfied with the granting of the bronze medal for act of courage and dedication.
Death threats in emergency rooms, three distinguished police officers
On Sunday, September 29, panic reigned in the emergency room of the Narbonne hospital center: a man brandished three knives. Alerted, the Narbonne police officers, faced with the worrying profile of the individual, decided to evacuate the emergency department. After starting the dialogue, and convincing the man to put down his knives, in particular by showing him their taser gun, without actually using it, the police were able to arrest him and place him in custody.
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An action praised by the departmental director of the national police, Laurent Sindic, who recalled that the chief brigadiers Virginie Fouillade, Pierre Vanthuyne and the peacekeeper Clément Vanhemelryck had allowed “to control a man who threatened to kill hospital staff and patients in the emergency waiting room with knives”. As a result, for the three police officers, bronze medals for acts of courage and dedication, the awarding of which was made official by a prefectural decree signed by prefect Christian Pouget on November 28.
Injured during intervention by a motorcycle
On April 7, 2024, on patrol in the Croix-Sud district of Narbonne, a crew from the anti-crime brigade caught a motorcyclist and his passenger traveling at a very high speed: one of the police officers dismounted and arrived to stop the vehicle from which the passenger is fleeing. It was then that the biker restarted his two-wheeler in a wheelie while dropping the machine on the police officer.
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Wounded in the arm and leg, peacekeeper Nicolas Bassaget was transported to the hospital center by his colleagues, while the motorcyclist was arrested and taken to the police station. The injured police officer was seen by the victims' support association and by a psychologist, and was prescribed a total incapacity for work of 10 days. Aged 19, the biker was to be prosecuted for intentional violence with weapons against a person holding public authority. Here again it is the divisional commissioner Laurent Sindic who, specifying that “the police officer was seriously injured by the motorcycle while trying to arrest the driver”put his name forward for a bronze medal. Granted by the prefect, in another decree signed on November 28.
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Police prevent suicide
This is the “professionalism” and the “cold song” of two police officers that Laurent Sindic asked to honor, by proposing the bronze medal for an act of courage and dedication for the peacekeepers David Bencheik and Arthur Cuterlin. Two Carcassonne police officers who, on October 12, “helped save the life of a person who was trying to end his life on the Pont Vieux in Carcassonne”. By preventing him from jumping into the Aude, the two police officers thus deserved the decoration, confirmed by Christian Pouget in a decree dated Monday December 2.
The honored police officer
On April 7, 2024, on the RD 6009, at the entrance to Coursan, a vehicle, with two young men aged around twenty on board, left the road and found itself submerged on its roof. , in an irrigation canal. Around fifteen firefighters are involved, with the support of a team of Samu emergency workers. A dramatic accident which, in a previous prefectural decree, on September 11, 2024, had earned two firefighters the bronze medal for an act of courage and dedication.
Sergeant Jérémy Chassang and Master Corporal Laurent Espuna, from the Coursan rescue center, did not hesitate to dive to rescue the occupants of the submerged vehicle: “Upon their arrival, the driver had been freed by witnesses and unfortunately did not survive. Despite the danger, the two firefighters did not hesitate to free the passenger by opening the blocked side door of the vehicle. Thanks at their intervention, the young man was saved from certain death”. On December 2, the prefect of Aude this time acceded to the recommendation of squadron leader Vincent Pardonneau, commanding the Béziers gendarmerie company, who emphasized “the intervention of police officer Chloé De Luca Franchi” on this fatal accident: enough to be worth this bronze medal awarded by a new decree, signed on December 2.
