On the sixteenth day of the hearing, the victims or relatives of the 13 people who lost their lives at the bar at La Belle Equipe took the stand. Six years after the fact, their faces, their looks, their words show how their lives have been turned upside down.
“The terrace of the Belle Equipe was shielded”, remembers Chloe. She is the first to come forward in front of the court on this sixteenth day of hearing devoted to the massacre at the bar La Belle Equipe. She is a young blonde woman, beautiful, lively, dressed in red, just like her painted nails.
At the helm, facing President Jean-Louis Périès, she is not alone. At his side, a friend, brother of a murdered victim on the same terrace in the 11th arrondissement. Throughout the young woman’s testimony, where pain and anger mingle, he will support her, tight against her, sometimes hugging her.
A joyful evening in a bar in eastern Paris
That evening, Hooda, the bar manager celebrates her birthday. Longtime friends or neighborhood pals came. Chloe is there, “a parigote over 3 generations”, she says. She grew up in the Goutte d’Or in a colorful neighborhood. She works at La Belle Equipe as a waitress every Monday. But that night, she’s not on duty. She comes to celebrate Hooda’s birthday, with all her friends, including, “Ludo”, Macathéo Ludovic Boumbas.
The young woman describes the atmosphere of an evening in eastern Paris. “I meet Michelli (Gil Jaimez, deceased), who shows me her engagement ring, I meet Hodda (Saadi, deceased), who tells me that she has found her childhood sweetheart, I meet Jacinthe (Koma, deceased), I’m wandering. “
“Ludo has just arrived, what a flirty, he compliments me on my dress, I have no time to answer, the first burst of bullets begins, we hear the sounds of glass and it cuts the electricity everywhere, I I’m hit but I’m not aware of it. (…) Ludo pushes me down, there are thousands of bullets, sparks, we don’t understand what’s going on, he protects me with his body, Djamila ( Houd, deceased) begs the attackers to stop. And then another burst even stronger and after nothing, a chilling silence. “
I am surrounded by corpses
Then, the young woman tells of the chaos she sees around her. “A mortuary silence“except for the moaning of the wounded.” JI look at Ludo, Ludo does not answer.” (…) “I am surrounded by corpses. The terrace is turned over, the bodies are entangled in each other “, continues the young woman.
She is in shock. Wounded in the arm, friends quickly accompanying her to the hospital. “We are the first to arrive at the hospital. We beg the firefighters to go help our friends, but at that point nobody really understands what is going on“, she explains. A few tens of minutes later,”it is the hecatomb. All the wounded from the Bataclan have landed. As the ER is overcrowded, I ask to go home. “ She must be patient. In a room, a nurse said to him in tears: “I lived through the Algerian war, never have I seen so many atrocities.“
Chloe talks about the consequences on her life. She no longer wishes to come to the neighborhood. “It reminds me too much of what I was and what I no longer have“, she breathes defeat. She describes”the consequences on the invisible, our families“, receptacles of doubts, fears, anger.
A tribute video to “Ludo”, Macathéo Ludovic Boumbas was screened in the Assize Court. We see him dancing. Images which bear witness to “the atmosphere that usually reigns in this bar, but also the night of the shooting “, said Maître Bibal, the lawyer for the civil party.
“Today we need to bury this story, my friend, my hero, my Ludo, thank you for saving my life, thank you for making who I am. I also have an intimate thought for all my surviving friends, atheists, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Orthodox “, she concluded. The president of the court thanked her for her testimony “also moving“before calling another civil party.
It is Amber’s turn to come and testify about what she experienced that evening. She was a waitress at La Belle Equipe.
She remembers a wonderful day: “I had to work in the evening. I go full of enthusiasm to this birthday party to celebrate the 35 years of my manager. “, she explains with great difficulty.”All of the warden’s friends are present, there is a crowd. 9:30 p.m., it’s time for a cigarette break. Just before that, I am asked for glasses of champagne, I look for the glasses and find myself behind the bar. “ Then comes the sound of bullets: “I squat behind the bar, then I get up because I still have responsibilities here. But they yell at me to lie down“, she recalls.
Going out on the terrace, I remain frozen, I do not understand what I see
The shooting resumed then stopped. “Going out on the terrace, I remain frozen, I do not understand what I see. I do not recognize the people, whom I do know. People are filming with their cell phones, I yell at them to call for help. When I phoned my mother, then, I told her that it was war. There are deaths everywhere “, she said upset, her hands kneading her yellow mask. Looking lost, she recounts sobs in her voice, the long wait for help which does not arrive.
Amber also tells how she held the hand of her friend Hodda and how she tries to convince her “that she is strong.” (…) “It was one of the last people taken care of by the emergency services. They probably thought it was too late …“She explains that she didn’t want to wash her hands to conserve the blood of her friend Hooda.
“So much for the facts “, she declares, trembling all over her body. She also talks about the consequences on her life: “For a long time I wondered what I wasn’t dead for, I know these are stupid questions“She smiles. She testifies to her difficulty in living, finding a job and keeping it. She convinces herself that all is well. Her lawyer then intervenes to point out that Amber is”seriously injured“according to psychiatric reports.
The guilt of living
All afternoon, testimonies like those of Chloé or Ambre will follow. They talk about the pain of losing loved ones and the guilt of living. Camille who says he was “frozen by fear. “With his friend Sammy, they came to celebrate the birthday of the manager of the bar.
Wax faces, blood everywhere, I no longer recognized anyone. I was frozen by fear
Camille also has feverish hands that seek and twist. Her voice is lost in sobs. They had just ordered food, a group of friends went outside to smoke. “We survived, not the others “, she whispers.
And to continue “I was not injured, I did not take a bullet, it turns out that my life was turned upside down by this event“, she admits. She lists the nightmares, the insomnia, the drugs, the therapies.”My life has changed, there will be no turning back“, divided between the guilt of being alive and the immense sadness that there is in her.
During this trial, Camille would like to understand “how human beings can participate in such killingss “and adds:”It can also be the place to understand what could be improved, to avoid such violence..”
Finally, she wanted to pay tribute to each of her missing friends: “Yacinthe, his unique legendary charisma, his incredible humor, his extraordinary sense of connection to others. Marie-Aimee, swe laugh fantastic, his generosity, his impressive courage, his formidable determinatione. Justine, her wonderful delicacy, her luminosity, her benevolence in all areas. Hodda, her reassuring gentleness, her straightforwardness but also her joy of living, communicating. Thierry, his solidity, his kindness and his daringe.”
“Victims by ricochet”
At the helm, during this long and painful afternoon of testimony, there was Valérie, Mathilde’s mother seriously injured, “a miracle“as Jean-Louis Périès, the president of the court declares. She says she is there”as a ripple victim. ”
She recounts his ordeal and affirms like the previous victims: “We are the Invisibles. I came to represent the parents of victims. We died“.
At the helm, there were also Juliette and her lover met on social networks, Jessica who was celebrating her 24th birthday, or Thomas who grew up in the 11th arrondissement and others.
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