“His eyes were empty,” says one of the two French people who opposed the killer

For several days, Australia has only been talking about them. French residents who tried, with their means, to stop the attacker of the supermarket in Sydney (Australia), Saturday April 13. The 40-year-old man began randomly stabbing customers at the mall. Present on site, Silas Despreaux and Damien Guerot intervened, and mobilized their courage by grabbing a post to block his way. “We saw it coming, a lot of shops were closing their doors. We thought we had to try to stop it”remembers Damien Guerot.

Australian citizenship as a reward

The young man resisted the attacker for a few moments, throwing the post at him before fleeing. “He didn’t speak. He was very tall, a little thin, but his eyes were empty, as if he was absent”, remembered Damien Guerot, marked by his brief meeting with the killer. His action will have slowed down the attacker’s progress. But the Frenchman remains modest, it was indeed a policewoman who neutralized him with her weapon just afterwards. “She’s actually the one who’s a hero, she did the work. We just did what we did, we’re not real heroes.”, added Damien. But in Australia, Damien Guerot’s intervention was widely welcomed, and as his construction work visa expired, the authorities are now offering him nationality.