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In a criminal trial that centers on the violent deaths of 130 people, there are no good days. But there are less bad ones. On Wednesday, after nine audiences devoted to the catalog of cowardice and horror, heroism finally had its heyday.
I can’t tell you his name. As a sitting police commissioner, the witness is protected by anonymity.
This is the man who, armed with a service handgun and accompanied by a single colleague, chose to enter the Bataclan while the massacre was still in progress.
Kill unarmed civilians at will.
He shot Samy Amimour as the terrorist pointed his Kalashnikov at a young man. Touched, Amimour fell backwards. His explosive vest exploded. The momentum of the attack changed, with the two surviving killers realizing that they were no longer free to kill unarmed civilians at will.
As the president of the tribunal Jean-Louis Périès told the witness, “your action obviously saved many lives”.
The commissioner, who began his testimony by speaking on behalf of his colleagues in the Paris Anti-Criminal Brigade, saying how much they regretted not having saved more people, gave no response.
An ordinary Friday night!
It started like an ordinary Friday night
On Friday, November 13, 2015, the witness entered service at 6:00 p.m.
Other than the friendly soccer match between France and Germany at the Stade de France, there were no urgent security concerns.
At 9:25 p.m., police were informed of an explosion on the football field, initially described as a mortar shell. There was also “a shooting in Paris”. Not extraordinary on a Friday night.
“The initial police confusion obscured the reality of events.” Eight attacks were reported in 35 minutes.
On hearing of a possible second explosion during the football match, the witness and his companion decided to go to the Stade de France to see for themselves. On their way north, they receive a succession of reports of shootings in bars and restaurants in central Paris, then of an attack in progress during a concert at the Bataclan.
This was where they were heading.
Arrived on Boulevard Voltaire, just in front of the concert hall, they immediately heard gunshots. There were two or three bodies lying on the sidewalk in front of the building.
As the witness and his service partner walked towards the entrance, the swinging doors opened to the outside and “a solid mass of people, 20 or 30, ran out, trying to escape. They us. said to run “.
In the few seconds that the doors remained open, the officer was able to see one of the terrorists, later identified as Ishmaël Omar Mostefaï, and see his semi-automatic weapon. With a service pistol and a light bulletproof vest, he knew he was desperately under-equipped.
“We heard gunshots from within, single, spaced apart, as if they were executing individuals. We entered the hallway.
“A carpet of human bodies”
“There are no words to describe what I saw. In the harsh light of the stage lighting, there was a carpet of bodies. I wondered how they had managed to kill so many. people in such a short time There was absolute silence.
“Then we heard Samy Amimour shouting ‘lie down’ at a survivor, the first person standing I had seen. He pointed his gun at the man.
“I took my firing position and aimed at the body. I thought the head would be too small a target at 25 meters. I shot four times, my partner twice. Amimour fell. While we were reloading, there was an explosion. We were hit by a hail of human flesh. I thought one of the other terrorists had thrown a grenade. Amimour was missing. “
After a brief check of the situation outside, the witness and his unit began to evacuate the wounded.
Then the two policemen heard the shooting start again.
“We had to go home.”
Knowing what they would face, the two sent farewell phone messages to their families.
“It was the worst time,” the witness continued. “We had to wait at the edge of the ground floor. It would have been suicide to go any further. The shot was now coming from a side balcony, above our position. We knew people were dying a few steps away. meters from us, and there was nothing we could do.
“A voice screamed from the ground ‘what are you waiting for?'”
And then the heavily armed rapid intervention brigade arrived. As the terrorists retreated along a narrow corridor on the first floor, gathering a dozen hostages in front of them, the witness continued to rescue the wounded, dragging and carrying those who could not stand.
“Each victim needed two or three officers to lift, their clothes were so wet with blood. And now we were all carrying our heavy emergency equipment.
“One of the ones we took out was a five-year-old boy, still wearing his hearing protection.” The child survived. Through their lawyer, the boy’s parents thanked the police officer who testified for saving their son’s life. He smiles but doesn’t say anything.
An impossible task
The story was then picked up by Commissioner Christophe Molmy, who led the final assault, killing the two remaining terrorists, freeing the hostages, without any other civilian casualties.
Before entering the building to confront the killers, the Paris police prefect asked Molmy if he thought the operation would go smoothly. “No,” he said. He expected to lose half of his team.
Molmy told his men to limit the use of their weapons for fear of hitting hostages. They advanced behind a steel shield on wheels, until the 80 kg device toppled onto a step and left the column of men exposed. They continued to advance, using stun grenades for cover.
Shot down as he descended a spiral staircase to the Bataclan stage, one terrorist set off his explosive vest, killing himself and destabilizing the other, who seemed to lose his grip on the detonator. He was shot and fell, still wearing his unexploded jacket, just outside the store where around 30 escapees had taken refuge.
The officers had to evacuate the survivors. One of the members of the police team voluntarily lay down on the body of the deceased assailant so that those in the reserve could step over him in relative safety. The policeman would have taken the blast and shrapnel if the notoriously unstable explosive had detonated.
Asked by the president of the court if the man’s action had been determined by a police protocol, Commissioner Christophe Molmy smiled and replied “no, he just did it himself”.
In this ritual confrontation between barbarism and justice, honor and heroism had their hour of glory. There was no comment from the prisoners.
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