(Amqui) Pauline Desmarais and Jean Lafrenière were walking Monday on Saint-Benoît Boulevard in Amqui when a man driving a van hit 11 innocent bystanders. The woman, seriously injured, is now in a hospital in Quebec, while her husband is one of two pedestrians who lost their lives.
The drama had the effect of a bomb in several circles where Jean and Pauline were loved. In the small village of Albertville, where Pauline was mayor in addition to running the convenience store with her husband, the news “hits hard”. The dance club where they went twice a week is appalled.
“We had a meeting Monday night. Pauline was always on time. There she did not come and we did not understand. When the phone rang, we understood, ”drops in dismay her friend Jacqueline Dion, treasurer of the Friendship Dance Club of Amqui.
Pauline and Jean were regulars at the dance club, which they went to twice a week religiously. Pauline was even its secretary.
The vice-president of the club arrived on the scene of the tragedy on Monday before the first responders. Réal Gonthier walked as usual. Then suddenly, the horror.
“I saw a gentleman on the floor and it was my cousin’s husband. I saw a lot more than I wanted to see, he said. Then I saw that people were massaging Mr. Lafrenière. Then they put the blanket over him. »
The death of 73-year-old Jean Lafrenière and Pauline Desmarais’ battle in hospital have thrown the dance club into dismay.
The dance club must decide what to do with its next activities on the calendar. Should we cancel them? One thing is certain, the next meeting will be an opportunity to stick together. “It will be a reunion, an opportunity to talk to each other about the people who are missing,” said Mr. Gonthier.
In the meantime, these friends remember very nice people, who spoke to everyone, or even a “beautiful united couple”.
“They had a community spirit, the idea of having fun together, remembers Bertrand Dubé, also a member of the club. What is happening, there are no words to understand it. »
In the village of Albertville, too, Monday’s truck attack had the effect of a bomb. Pauline was mayor in the early 1990s and she ran a convenience store with Jean in the center of the village.
The small community of 226 residents was also struck by the death of Gérald Charest, 65, the other pedestrian who lost his life in addition to Jean Lafrenière. It was because Mr. Charest was a native of the village, like Pauline.
“The two deaths are people from our area. It’s like falling on our house, remarks the mayor of Albertville, Martin Landry. It spanks, in good Quebec. This is a shock to many people. Why him ? Why she ? »
The village is shaken, admits the mayor. “It’s more impersonal when you don’t know people, when it happens elsewhere. It’s no less dramatic, but it’s more impersonal, he says. When it’s people you know well, it’s more striking. »
“There, it hits hard,” he blurts out.
The mayor is now trying to get news of Pauline Desmarais’ condition through family members. Last I heard, the Sûreté du Québec was still talking about three people fighting for their lives.
Recall that Steve Gagnon, 38, was charged with dangerous driving causing death. The Crown does not rule out the possibility of laying murder charges if the investigation permits.
The motives of the man, who intentionally ran into the pedestrians, according to the police, are still unknown. Steve Gagnon did not have a long criminal record. However, he was arrested for driving while impaired by alcohol in September 2006, and police found cocaine in his car, according to court documents seen by La Presse.
The mayor of Amqui on Wednesday appealed to pedestrians to return to walk near the scene of the tragedy and bring life back to this downtown area which looked ghostly after Monday’s attack.
” We have to go. It’s normal to feel pain. But we have to go back there to start walking there again, encourage our businesses and soothe the pain, ”launched the mayor of Amqui, Sylvie Blanchette, in an interview.
This call comes just before the arrival in the city of Prime Minister François Legault, who will visit Amqui this Thursday with the three leaders of the opposition parties.
Boulevard Saint-Benoît was closed from Monday afternoon to Tuesday evening, after a madman drove his truck into innocent pedestrians, leaving behind two dead and nine injured. The mayor decided to walk around it as soon as it opened on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, people were busy erasing the last traces of the attack. A worker was busy repairing the steel railing of the La Captive microbrewery, which had been twisted in the accident.
Madeleine Trottier, 76, has been there. The lady had no reason to go for a walk on boulevard Saint-Benoît on Wednesday and to walk the narrow sidewalk eaten away by slush. She had no errands to run. But she decided to come to honor the victims.
“It comes looking for us inside. It takes up all the space in my head. I wanted to come to offer a small thought to the victims. »
Same thing for Gérard Couture, who still can’t understand what happened. “We heard about Laval and we said to ourselves: it’s big, Laval, it’s far, Laval. But then, it happened here, in Amqui. »
In addition to the Prime Minister’s visit this Thursday, Amqui will receive the Bishop of Rimouski on Friday. Bishop Denis Grondin will celebrate an evening mass at the Saint-Benoît-Joseph-Labre church.
“We must give hope, so that we do not lose hope,” said priest Kindé Cosme Arouko, from Benin, who arrived in the region in 2018.
He hopes Amquians will pray for the victims, the injured and their families. “We also have the power to pray for the one who did this, that he will change his heart, enter into repentance and the path of good. »
