“Help me, I’m going to die”: the mushroom picker, whose leg was amputated after a hunter’s shot, testifies

Donovan thought he was having a good day last Wednesday. With two friends, this 38-year-old man went looking for mushrooms in a forest in Cabasson in the Var. Arriving around 7:30 a.m., he remembers seeing no cars, no hunters, nor hearing gunshots or dogs barking. As he was returning to his car, in a somewhat wooded area, a hunter mistook him for an animal and shot.

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He goes out to pick mushrooms: an octogenarian hunter shoots him by accident, the victim has his leg amputated

Donovan recounts this moment: “I hear an explosion, I thought I stepped on a mine.” He calls a friend for help: “Baptiste, Baptiste, help me, I’m going to die.” He looks at his lower body: “My leg had exploded, there was nothing left,” he tells Var Morning.

Donovan's friends are still far from him. Two hunters come up to him. One of the two then says to him: “You don’t have the vest,” the mushroom picker recalls. The hunters put a sweater on him as a tourniquet and called the firefighters. Donovan's friend, Baptiste, arrives at that moment and fixes the tourniquet on him.

“I hunt but I don’t shoot people”

Donovan has bitter memories of the hunters' behavior. “I was bleeding out. They didn't help me, they put the sweater on me, they squeezed it and they left. They didn't help me. It's a crazy thing.” He continues: “I hunt too. I do hunts. I hunt but I don't shoot people. I'm 1.80 m tall, I'm not a wild boar.” With hindsight, he does not blame the hunters in general but the octogenarian who shot when other walkers could have been in the forest, on this Wednesday of the All Saints' Day holiday.

The mushroom picker was transferred to the hospital where his right leg had to be amputated. Bartender, and standing during his work, Donovan does not know what his future will hold. Married, he has an 8-year-old daughter and his wife is pregnant.