Death of Simon Fieschi, first victim of the “Charlie Hebdo” attack in January 2015

CHARLIE HEBDO – “Time helps, but it does not erase the fact that we were massacred with machine guns”. These words from Simon Fieschi, first victim of the attack in Charlie Hebdo of January 7, 2015, resonate this Saturday, October 19, while his death was announced by victims’ associations on social networks, and by his entourage at France Inter.

Near the Figarothe Paris prosecutor’s office indicates that an investigation has been opened to clarify the circumstances of the death, at the age of 41, of the man who was the first to be shot by the Kouachi brothers in the newspaper’s editorial office.

“The world is less intelligent without you”

Victims’ associations, as well as political figures, are paying tribute to him this Saturday morning. “Our hearts in tears”wrote on X (formerly Twitter) the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AfVT), publishing a drawing made by high school students for Simon Fieschi.

The association « Life for Paris: 13 November 2015 » recalls the involvement of Simon Fieschi “in the cause of the victims of terrorism”despite “the scars inflicted by the attack of January 7, 2015”. And adds, in a press release published on Facebook: “We mourn a friend and we stand alongside his family and that of Charlie Hebdo to share their pain. »

“Rest in peace, the world is less intelligent without you”deplores Arthur Dénouveaux, president of Life for Paris, who evokes a « suicide ». Three survivors of the 2015 attacks committed suicide, Franceinfo recalls.

“What sadness, feeling of helplessness, failure to help the victims,” lamented Juliette Méadel, former Secretary of State responsible for victim assistance under François Hollande. Before continuing: “I think of him, of his family. The Republic must pay tribute to him.”

“There are scars that many no longer see but which never heal”wrote the former head of state.

“I understood that dying was my only solution”

The deputy for Essonne Jérôme Guedj expresses his sadness by sharing a “upsetting text of 2020” by Simon Fieschi, published in Charlie Hebdoin which he discusses suicide. “ I thought a lot in this bed and I understood that dying was my only solution”writes the survivor of the shooting, describing his painful awakening after having been plunged into a coma for a week. After receiving a Kalashnikov bullet in his spine on January 7, 2015, Simon Fieschi remained paralyzed for several months before being able to walk again.

Several other personalities paid tribute to him, like the journalist Sophia Aram, or the writer Georges Salines, who lost his daughter Lola in the attack of November 13, 2015 at the Bataclan. He rents a “a man of exceptional sensitivity and intelligence. »

After the attack of Charlie Hebdo, Simon Fieschi married a young Australian woman. They had a child, a little girl now aged 5.

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