At the specially composed Assize Court in Paris,
It is a breathtaking story that delivered, this Wednesday, in front of the specially composed Assize Court, a commissioner of the Parisian night BAC. Twelve minutes after the start of the killing, he shot down, with his teammate, one of the three Bataclan terrorists, thus slowing down the heavy fire on the spectators who came to attend the Eagles of Death Metal concert that evening. Both were however that evening, equipped only with their handguns, two magazines containing about thirty bullets and a light bulletproof vest, quite incapable of protecting them in the event of Kalashnikov fire. A decision to intervene taken “with the guts”. “We feel what we have to do in these cases,” soberly confides the policeman, elegantly dressed in a dark suit, salt and pepper hair cut short.
It is 9.47 p.m. on November 13, 2015, when this BAC commissioner – who testifies anonymously – and his teammate, brigadier, are warned of the Bataclan shooting. It has already been about thirty minutes, since 9:25 pm and the first explosion at the Stade de France, that on the airwaves of the police reigns a “total confusion”. Every time they take charge of a crime scene, they are ultimately sent to a new one. This time they are right next to the concert hall. “We weren’t down [de la voiture] for 30 seconds, that it was already apocalyptic ”, he confides. Some bodies lie in the middle of broken glasses, a man calls out to them. “Quick, quick, there’s an attack. “
“Quick, quick, there’s my wife inside”
As they approach the doors of the Bataclan, they open and a “compact mass” comes out screaming. About fifteen people in fact. Even today, he remembers the “terror” on the face of a young woman or this man who slipped “quickly, quickly, my wife is inside”. Motionless, both hands clinging to the bar, the superintendent recounts the “chaos” in a calm voice. Only a few silences here and there sometimes translate his emotion. That evening, when he walks through the doors of the Bataclan, he is convinced he will not come out alive. “For us, it was written, our last hour had come. Yet neither he nor his colleague hesitated.
Inside, a “body mat” covers the floor. And if the bursts of fire have just ceased, the massacre continues. Moments after their arrival, they see a terrorist on the scene – he will later be identified as Samy Aminour – holding a hostage at bay. “He arrived walking, almost resigned, his hands on his head and he began to kneel,” recalls the commissioner. The two men, who are about thirty meters from the stage, shoot. Four times for him, twice for his teammate. The terrorist collapses on stage, his belt explodes. The official will learn, weeks later, that the hostage took advantage of this confusion to flee.
Evacuation of victims
The two police officers are caught under fire from bullets. So that they take “a few seconds to say goodbye to [leurs] relatives “. A 5 or 6 second call for him, a text for his teammate. They will finally manage to leave the room but barely left, they hear the terrorists continue their macabre enterprise. They then decide to go back. “The first time was a bit of the unknown, this time I knew what was behind it, it was even more terrifying. Faced with heavy fire from the terrorists, they are once again forced to turn back.
In the pit, the hostages start to grow impatient. ” What are you waiting for ? Hurry, they are going to kill us, ”they tell them during their second foray. He will finally return there a third time to rescue the victims while the BRI, the intervention force, advances in the room. This time, he will spend the evening there. At the helm, he evokes the memory of this man who thanks them because he will see his children again or this little 5-year-old boy hidden under a body with his noise-canceling headphones.
At the end of his presentation, a lawyer stands up. “His parents are in the room, I want to express their deep gratitude to you. He will be imitated by many black dresses who thank him, on behalf of their clients, for his “heroic” act. Does he have any regrets, asks one of them. “Maybe we could have extracted people who were a few meters from us, pulled them. We might have taken a bullet…. He and his team will be leaving the area around 3:30 am. “We tried to get back to a normal life,” he explains. Has he succeeded? He remains evasive. “We remain marked for life by such an event. “Your intervention has certainly reduced the number of victims”, insists the president of the Assize Court.