Retired Craftsman Opens Fire on Gendarmes Declaring Revolution

An 82-year-old retired craftsman opened fire on French gendarmes after declaring that a revolution was underway and insisting that President Emmanuel Macron had been deposed, local media have reported.

The incident took place on Saturday, when the elderly man’s wife called police to report that her husband had taken a hunting rifle and gone into the garden, convinced that the French government had fallen.

France’s elite GIGN police tactical unit was deployed to disarm the retiree. When five gendarmes arrived at the property near Nogent-le-Rotrou in north-central France, the former craftsman reportedly declared that “it’s a revolution” and that “Macron has been deposed” before opening fire.

Guided by one of the man’s daughters, the gendarmes found the self-styled revolutionary hiding behind a cedar tree with a rifle in his hands.

The officers first moved the daughter to safety, then tried to approach the man and begin negotiations. Prosecutors said he fired three times, wounding two gendarmes in the legs, before officers returned fire and the man retreated into the basement.

Both wounded gendarmes survived. One was taken to Chartres hospital and the other to the Percy military hospital in Clamart, while prosecutors said neither officer’s life was in danger.

The garden uprising finally came to an end when GIGN negotiators persuaded the 82-year-old to surrender shortly before 11 PM local time. He was later taken to the hospital to undergo surgery after a bullet became lodged in his hand.

The retired craftsman, who has no known criminal record, was subsequently placed in custody. Prosecutors said he has not yet been questioned in detail because of his hospitalization and what they described as “verbal delirium” during the incident.

A psychiatric examination is expected to determine whether the octogenarian was of sound mind at the time of the shooting.