North of Toulouse, a priest assaulted at home with a saucepan and a knife controls his attacker in the blood
It is a very bad adventure that happened to the priest Bangu Gibson who officiates in Saint-Loup Cammas, north of Toulouse. Returning from a designated mass in the neighboring town of Pechbonnieu, he found himself face to face with a stranger. Keeping his composure, the priest calmly asked him who he was and, above all, what he was looking for. “He replied that he was looking for water to drink”, says Father Gibson who says he immediately “thought of the person he had left at home, worried about her”. After questioning the intruder about this, he replied that there was no one there. Growing concern, Father Gibson then demanded explanations from the man, otherwise he would be “forced to call the police”.
Hit the head three times
This is when the situation takes on another tone. The aggressiveness of the man goes up a notch. Feeling threatened, Father Gibson then decides to lock his front door so that the intruder does not escape. This arouses the surprise of the man who suddenly rushes into the kitchen. But, second surprise, Father Gibson is behind him! Without hesitating, the priest belts it! A gesture made, he commented later “to get ahead of him in the event of a possible attack”.
The priest was right… The assailant grabbed a saucepan from the stove and hit Father Gibson three times in the head. But never mind, the skull open, and without letting go, the priest told him that if he calmed down, he would let go. The individual makes another choice and grabs a knife and injures his thumb tendon. However, it takes more for the courageous priest to give up… The priest maintains the restraint while further oppressing the violent intruder “in order to tire him out”. The latter then tries once again to escape. But Father Gibson, yet in simple sandals and slipping on the blood he has lost, prevents him. It is at this moment that his guest, who has gone shopping, returns. Quickly understanding what is happening, she goes out to seek help from the butchers who call the gendarmerie. While waiting for his arrival, one of them goes through the window and helps Father Gibson to control the individual then under the control of a team determined not to let him go.
12 months firm
The fierce struggle finally lasted thirty minutes and earned Father Gibson a tendon operation, five points to the head and six days off. The arrested man, forty-eight years old, is a proven burglar (nine thefts including four with violence in several departments of France). He was auditioned, placed in police custody and judged in immediate comparison. He was sentenced to twelve months in prison. During the confrontation, he expressed his regrets accepted by Father Gibson who delivered this comment, simple and modest: “Thank you for all those and those who carried me in their prayer or thought, and I would like so much that they do not keep no bitterness or anger but that they also pray for this person who attacked me. Because that is what he needs and not any other feeling. He too is a child of God, lost, but who may come back to him through our prayer”.