The morning of mushroom picking turned into a nightmare for this resident of the Giens peninsula. While he was finishing his harvest last Wednesday with two friends in Bormes-les-Mimosas (Var), Donovan, 38, was very seriously injured by a hunter's shot. Hit in the shin, this father, who is expecting his second child, had to be amputated by doctors at Timone in Marseille. “My leg had exploded,” explains the mushroom picker during a long testimony given to Var Matin.
According to his account, the hunters were not in the Cabasson sector when he arrived for the picking at 7:30 a.m. “The hunters had to arrive a little later, put up the signs (editor’s note. The obligatory signs which warn walkers that a hunt is in progress), post up,” remembers Donovan.
“I hear an explosion”
It was while heading back towards his vehicle that Donovan was hit: “I was about a hundred meters from the car, it was clear, the area was very lightly wooded, I was going back on the path where the hunter was. I hadn't even seen it and all of a sudden I heard an explosion, I thought I had stepped on a mine…”
After the stupor comes the pain. The injured man screams, thinks the worst, calls his friends: “I started screaming Baptiste, Baptiste, help me I'm going to die. My leg had exploded, there was nothing left. He shot me with an elephant thing from 20m…”
Where did the hunter shoot from and under what circumstances? An investigation was opened to determine this. But Donovan, who was not wearing a vest at the time of the accident, is already approaching Var Matin: “I don't know exactly where he was, I didn't see him shoot. (…) Where I was, there are no trees, no mushrooms. They say I was on all fours but I was standing with the mushroom basket in my hand. If he shot me in the shin, it was because he could see my whole body. »
According to this bar employee who says he is also used to hunting and hunts, “the fault comes from the one who shot without having properly analyzed that it was not game, that I am 1m80 tall and that I am not not a wild boar…”
“He should stop saying he thought it was a wild boar”
And his anger is not directed at all hunting enthusiasts. “I don’t blame the hunters, the hunt, the federation. I blame the person who shot. He should stop saying that I was squatting and that he thought it was a wild boar… he gets annoyed. I don't want to punish anyone, but those at fault will have to pay for not providing assistance to someone in danger and shooting when you can't see the animal. » The father assures that apart from a tourniquet made from a sweater tied hastily on his leg, the hunters did not attempt to help him that morning.
Above all, the injured man, who has just come out of intensive care, wonders: “But why are they going on a hunt there, in the middle of vacation, during the mushrooms in a place where there are hundreds of walkers? »
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