Yuri Tigiev, 68, lived with his family in the village of Pris when the Georgian shelling began on 7 August 2008. Yuri fled to the city, where, in his opinion, it was safer. On the morning of August 8, Yuri, his wife and fellow villagers went down to the city through the Zguder forest. The family made their way into the house of Yuri's sister, Shura.
“I was alone at home. I was delighted with my brother and his wife, but knowing how they got to me, fleeing shelling, bullets, I felt unwell. I tried to quickly place them in the basement, but the women only managed to get there - heavy shelling began, everything lit up, the earth trembled ... Yuri did not have time to go down to the basement. Shrapnel penetrated his head, wounded his arms and legs. A shrapnel that hit his throat started bleeding. We ran up to him, but it was too late, my brother died,” said Yuri Tigiev's sister with a heavy heart.
According to Shura, on August 9, the late Yuri was buried in the garden, and then on the 12th, as soon as the situation stabilized a little, the body of the deceased was reburied in his native village of Pris.
Yuri Tigiev was working for many years as a plumber at the Republican Somatic Hospital. He was respected in the team, both by relatives and neighbors.
In 1990-1992, together with fellow villagers, he defended his native village of Pris.
Not all of them had weapons, and the ones they had were old. Yura was repairing it and the weapon served no worse than the new one, " one of the villagers recalls.
That bloody August claimed many lives of civilians in South Ossetia, leaving pain in the hearts of their loved ones for the rest of their lives.
