She was saved by the sacrifice of gendarme Arnaud Beltrame during the deadly attack on the Super U in Trèbes in 2018. Julie, a cashier taken hostage, had never spoken publicly. Still upset by this day, she agreed to speak this Thursday, January 4, 2024 to the cameras of 8 p.m. on TF1.
March 23, 2018 will remain forever engraved in her. That day, Julie, a checkout attendant at the Super U in Trèbes, was at the supermarket reception when she heard “Allah Akbar” shouted.
More than 5 years after the Trèbes attack, the one who remains upset by the sacrifice of gendarme Arnaud Beltrame to save her, spoke out for the first time. His testimony was collected in the newspaper of 8 p.m. from TF1 this Thursday, January 4, 2024.
On March 23, 2018, Radouane Lakdim, 25, murdered four people and injured fifteen others between a car park in Carcassonne and a supermarket in Trèbes before being shot dead by the GIGN.
“I was nothing more than a kind of puppet”
Julie was there when the murderer visited the Trèbes supermarket. “I saw someone shooting in the air. I immediately ducked down and he came into the office. He said ‘Hey, it’s okay, I have my hostage, get out of there, I won’t hurt you.”
Gun to the head
The cashier then becomes his human shield, a gun to his head and a knife to his chest. “I felt the barrel of his gun shaking on my skull. I also felt that in the terrorist’s mind, I no longer existed, I was nothing more than a kind of puppet.”
Julie then thinks she is going to die when Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, enters the store. The checkout attendant at the Super U in Trèbes then hears him say to the terrorist, before putting down his weapon: “Take me instead of the little lady who has nothing to do with it, I represent the State, We’re going to talk.”
Julie remains upset by this tragedy. She also confided that she was consumed by guilt after learning of the death of her savior.
The outstretched hand of Marielle Beltrame
Marielle Beltrame, Arnaud’s wife, helped him overcome his trauma. “She reached out to me first by writing me a very kind and pretty letter. It helped me move forward and heal my guilt a little,” she testifies on TF1.
A book to come
On January 10, Julie will publish her book His life for mine, published by Artège, a few days before the trial of the Trèbes and Carcassonne attacks. The first will be held before the Special Assize Court of Paris from January 22 to February 23, 2024.