the story of an extraordinary hunt

Because it was their job or because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, they crossed paths with the Kouachi brothers after the Charlie Hebdo attack. Police officers, gendarmes and anonymous people keep their memories intact. Time has not erased anything. On a video dating from the day of the attack on the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff in January 2015, we can see three police officers on bicycles in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. It’s 11:37 a.m. Journalists from a press agency, sheltering on a roof, try to guide them.

The crew does not know that Charlie Hebdo has just been attacked. “At no time did we think there was going to be this. I say to myself: it’s a Wednesday, the parents are at work, the children are perhaps playing in the street”remembers a police officer. Barely arrived, the police came face to face with the attackers who were leaving the editorial office of the satirical newspaper. They are hooded and armed with Kalashnikovs. Targeted, the police are targeted. During the Kouachi brothers’ escape, a police officer is killed by terrorists’ bullets, followed by a three-day hunt to find the terrorists.

​​Watch the full report in the video above.