“We have to go. “At the trial of the attacks of November 13, 2015, Wednesday, the first police officer to arrive in the Parisian concert hall of the Bataclan a few minutes after the start of the attack which left 90 dead brought back to the court his terrifying progress in” the unknown “.
On the police radio waves that evening, there was “extreme confusion”. Explosions at the Stade de France, in the near Parisian suburbs, shootings in Paris. The two policemen from the night anti-crime squad stop their car to think. 9:47 p.m., warning message for Bataclan shooting. They’re right next door, they’re going there.
On the sidewalk in front of the concert hall, barriers knocked down, a few bodies and a man shouting: “Quick, quick, there’s an attack. Inside, shots were fired.
Tall, graying hair, the commissioner, who testifies anonymously before the special assize court, keeps his hands one in the other and the same surprisingly monotonous tone throughout his testimony.
“Suddenly”, the doors of the Bataclan open. “A compact mass ran towards us screaming. The commissioner holds back “a face” – the terror of a young woman -, and “a voice – a man who says to me:” Hurry, there is my wife inside. ” »He gives the alert, then« we had to make a decision ».
“Before us, swinging doors, the unknown. We did not know the layout of the place. There is only one certainty: that there were terrorists who massacred innocent people and awaited us with weapons of war. “
“I said to my teammate, ‘We have to go.’ “
“No more noise”
The spotlights project a dazzling “white halo” over the room. “Bodies, a carpet of bodies, bodies everywhere, entangled. “” No words can describe what we saw. “
He also remembers the “contrast” between “the chaos, the shootings” then “nothing, no more noise. Smoke from the gunfire still hung in the air. “
The commissioner hears a voice, turns around. One of the three attackers is on the scene, he is aiming at a spectator. “He yells, ‘Lie down on the ground!’ “
“The man walks forward, his hands on his head, looking resigned, he begins to kneel. “
The police take position, fire six times. The assailant collapses, detonates his belt. “A shower of confetti” of “human flesh”.
We shoot them, but they take a moment to say “goodbye” to their loved ones over the phone, he says.
“Even more terrifying”
The police will enter the room three times, in parallel with the intervention of the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) which will lead the assault.
“The first time, it was the unknown, [après] we knew. And it was even more terrifying. “
In the pit, the wounded call, others despair: “Why are you taking so long? “You could hear death spreading and you couldn’t do anything,” “it was unbearable,” he said.
When reinforcements from his service arrived, they began to evacuate the wounded.
The commissioner evokes those he has met. The “crawling hand” he pulled towards the exit. “The face of the first young man” saved from the pit. “The five-year-old boy with his earmuffs on his head” came out from under a body.
We heard death spread and there was nothing we could do
At the end of his presentation on Tuesday, a civil party lawyer rises. “His parents are in the room, I want to express their deep gratitude to you. »Other lawyers follow one another to pass the same messages transmitted by their clients.
On November 13, 2015, the police left the scene around 3:30 am “We discussed, we comforted each other and then in the early morning, everyone went to bed. Then we tried to relive as before. Here is. “
“Do you manage to relive as before?” »Asks the president.
“The necessary has been done in terms of psychological support. But we remain marked for life. “
Free the hostages
After him, the boss of the BRI came to detail “the virtually impossible operation” to free the 12 hostages held in a lodge by the other two jihadists. “They are at the end of a corridor, it is formidable, there is nothing to hide,” said Christophe Molmy at the helm.
After several telephone conversations with the jihadists, “my negotiator tells me that he will not get anything out of it.” The assault is launched at 12:18 am All the hostages will come out alive, a miracle. One assailant will detonate his belt, the other will be killed by the BRI.
The hearing will resume on Thursday.
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