“A scar that remains”
Moments obviously still strongly engraved in his mind today: “It still comes back to me ten years later, it still comes back to me. As they say: it’s a scar that remains. It’s impossible to forget. Impossible,” he confided to RFI this Thursday.
“It’s impossible to forget. Impossible “
That day, he was working in the basement of the store when he heard loud noises. He first thought of a car accident but understood what was really happening when he saw several customers joining him: “It’s an impossible shock,” he remembers. But he reacts quickly and hides customers in the cold room. “We all went in. I even held the door inside to protect us.” He then suggests that they escape using the freight elevator, but they, frightened, refuse. He tries his luck: “I know the store well. I say to myself: why not try something? »
“They thought I had explosives on me”
He manages to get out and runs towards the police, who then think it is the terrorist. “They thought I had explosives on me. So, before identifying myself, it still took a lot of time. It’s true that I was mistreated at the beginning, because they caught me like a terrorist… I was searched and handcuffed for an hour and a half.”
-“I was searched and handcuffed for an hour and a half”
His identity is finally confirmed, the police then understand that he can be of real help and ask him to draw the plan of the store. At the same time, the police are in contact with a hostage to find out where he is. , and can thus prepare for the raid.
On January 20, 2015, Lassana Bathily, of Malian origin, received French nationality.
AFP
