Burning Man skydiver killed in Paris attacks

[cpoxon 0]

Please keep the politics to Speakers Corner.

http://www.rgj.com/story/life/arts/burning-man/2015/11/17/burning-man-skydiver-killed-paris-attacks/75904230/

Quote

The Burning Man community lost one of its own in the Paris attacks on Friday.

Pierro Jacare Innocenti, 40, of Paris, was killed when gunmen stormed the sold-out Eagles of Death Metal show that Innocenti was attending at the Bataclan Concert Hall. Innocenti posted a photo on his Facebook page of the concert billboard with the comment “Rock!” at 8:45 p.m., less than an hour before three gunmen gunned down 89 people at the venue.

On Friday evening, gunmen and suicide bombers with the Islamic State, or ISIS, almost simultaneously targeted the concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars in Paris, leaving at least 129 people dead and hundreds wounded.

During the weekend, Burners remembered Innocenti by posting photos on social media of Innocenti along with photos of notes to Innocenti left at candlelit memorials in Paris. Some of the notes reading "Pour toi Pierro" had the Burning Man insignia, a stick figure-like interpretation of the Burning Man, and some read "dusty hugs" and "In Dust We Trust."

Burners encouraged each other over social media to love and respect one another in honor of Innocenti, who several people said was a generous and kind Burner. Several people changed their Facebook profile photos to Innocenti’s.

Innocenti owned a restaurant, Chez Livio, in Paris. Livio co-owned the Italian restaurant with his brother Charles, according to a French daily, Le Parisien.

The Innocenti brothers’ grandfather first opened the restaurant in 1964, and it has received such celebrities as Brigitte Bardot, Nicolas Sarkozy and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, according to the Huffington Post.

Innocenti’s Facebook photos show him as an avid Burner, skydiver and surfer. His cover shot shows him skydiving over Black Rock City, the crescent-shaped city that forms in the Black Rock Desert during Burning Man each year.

“He was incredibly inviting and friendly,” said Jennifer Evans, a Burner who met Innocenti while skydiving at Burning Man this year.

This year and last, Innocenti “flew” with Burning Sky, a camp of skydivers that group together for annual dives over Burning Man, according to Chris Romp, one of the camp leaders. France is known as a skydiving-enthusiastic country, second only to the U.S. in the sport’s popularity, Romp said.

It is not known how many years he attended Burning Man.

“The man burns in 364 days,” Innocenti wrote on his Facebook wall on Sept. 7, the day that the Man burned this year. He later posted a compilation video of this year's Burning Man, first writing "Welcome home brother" as his status.

Innocenti also posted a video of himself sailing through the air over Lake Tahoe in what he called the “most perfect after burn” on Sept. 9, just a day after Burning Man officially ended.

More than 80,000 people attend Burning Man, fewer than 5 percent of them from Europe, according to the 2014 Black Rock City census. About 3 percent of Burners speak French as their first language, though there are no reports of how many Burners are from France, based on the 2014 census.

Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live