Hero in spite of himself: Constable Legris risks his life to save a mother attacked with a saber

Faced with an armed man who attacked Tatiana Appasamy, a mother of three children, constable Abdulah Nazir Legris, although off duty, did not hesitate to intervene. Injured during the confrontation, he remained there until the arrival of reinforcements dispatched to the scene. In the space of a few minutes, a simple end of the day transformed into a high-risk intervention. On Monday, July 13, when he had just finished his shift and was returning home on a motorcycle, constable Abdulah Nazir Legris, 37, assigned to the Rose-Hill Traffic Branch, chose to intervene to rescue a woman attacked by a man armed with a sword. Wounded in the wrist, chased on foot and targeted by a truck, this police officer with sixteen years of service held on until the arrival of his colleagues from the Vacoas police station. His intervention helped save Tatiana Appasamy, a mother of three children. It also earned him public congratulations from the Prime Minister in Parliament, as well as a personal appeal from the latter. Behind this act of bravery, however, is a simple man, a husband and a father who, that evening, simply had to return home to his family.

For Abdulah Nazir Legris, July 13 started like any other work day. For sixteen years, he has served in the Mauritius Police Force with the same rigor and discipline. Assigned to the Rose-Hill Traffic Branch, he is used to managing the unforeseen events, accidents and emergency situations that characterize the daily life of a police officer. But nothing suggested the intervention he would face that day.

At the end of the afternoon, once his shift is over, he gets on his motorbike and takes the road to Hollywood, in Vacoas, where his wife Preety and their two children, Ayaan, aged seven, and Zia, aged four, are waiting for him for dinner. After a long day of work, all he can think about is finding his family and enjoying a few hours of peace and quiet before returning to duty the next day. But his journey will be interrupted by calls for help.

While he was riding in a police biker uniform near a supermarket in Vacoas, around 6 p.m., his eye was caught by an unusual crowd. A crowd formed at the side of the road. He slows down his motorcycle and tries to understand what is happening. It was then that he heard a woman shout: “Sov mwa… li pou touy mwa… Sov mwa… li pou touy mwa…” At that moment, he understood that every second counts. Although he has finished his service, he immediately decides to help her.

“My work comes first. My wife Preety and my two children were waiting for me for dinner, but when I heard this woman calling for help, I had no choice. I am a police officer above all and I could not continue my journey as if I had not seen anything,” he says. For him, the commitment of a police officer is not taken into account