She was there to care for the wounded, she found herself in the shoes of an attacker. At 38, Hager A. is supposed to be a “street medic”, these volunteer activists who can be seen in processions helping demonstrators to administer bandages or saline, often after clashes with the police. But, since Sunday, this former nurse has been at the heart of a controversy after the broadcast on social networks of a video showing her violently attacking a firefighter who was intervening on a fire linked to the numerous degradations of May 1 in Paris.
An attack condemned from all sides – up to Jean-Luc Mélenchon who spoke of “an absurd act” on Twitter. Placed in police custody at the 20th arrondissement police station on Sunday evening, the young woman will be tried in immediate appearance on Wednesday. She is being prosecuted for “violence against a person charged with a public service mission”, “contempt”, “rebellion” and “participation in a group with a view to committing violence”.
“You’re not going to put out the fire”
It is around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday when a young firefighter, aged 24, is called with his colleagues for a fire of rubbish and street furniture at the corner of boulevard voltaire and rue Alexandre-Dumas in the 11th arrondissement. district of Paris. The disaster is so intense that it threatens to spread to a nearby pharmacy. While the firefighters are busy putting it out, a first unidentified man intervenes, touches the fire hose, without managing to hinder the action of the soldiers.
Seconds later, a woman in a blue denim jacket, military khaki pants and a motorcycle helmet with a gas mask pulled down below her forehead enters the scene. She carries a red emergency bag characteristic of “street medics”. Except she’s not here to help the rescuers. To the young firefighter at the head of the line, she yelled several times, according to the testimonies collected by the police, “You are not going to put out the fire” and “We are going to smash you like in 2019”, a reference no doubt to the demonstrations of the Yellow vests, movement to which she belonged.
VIDEO. May 1: images of a firefighter attacked by a protester
The rest of the scene is visible on the video: the activist, identified as Hager A. therefore, violently grabs the young soldier’s fire hose to prevent him from putting out the fire and pushes him around aggressively. The latter tries to push the aggressor off the shoulders and continue his work. “You dare to attack a woman” would then have yelled the “street medic”, before letting go of the spear with his right hand to deliver several violent blows to the firefighter at the level of the visor of his helmet. Another firefighter pushes the activist back again.
But it is ultimately a police charge that puts the young belligerent to flight. For his part, very shocked, the firefighter victim of the blows took refuge in the truck of the rescuers where he noticed a crack on his helmet of a size between two and five centimeters.
A regular at the Yellow Vests parades
Around 6 p.m., Hager A. was finally spotted at the Place de la Nation, where she was arrested before being taken to the police station in the 20th arrondissement. At the time of her arrest, she allegedly tried to attack the police. The young woman is already known for two acts of minor violence in private settings, unrelated to demonstrations.
According to a police source, on the other hand, she is a regular at the parades of yellow vests and opponents of the health pass. Particularly active on social networks, this pro-Mélenchon sympathizer relays anti-vaccine content on her Facebook and Instagram account and says she supports “the freedom convoy”, a movement of opponents of health restrictions.
Interviewed in July 2021 by the American press agency Associated Press, she indicated that she had resigned from her nursing position, accusing the government of “using a form of blackmail “. “I don’t think we should be told what to do,” she confided, believing that “French medical personnel during the first wave of Covid-19 were quite mistreated”. From now on, this young mother of two children, domiciled in Seine-Saint-Denis, multiplies the odd jobs.