the first victims testify, “I was afraid of dying alone in the cold”

This Friday, March 8, 2024, the civil parties began to testify at the trial of the attack on the Strasbourg Christmas market, which left five dead and eleven injured in 2018. Those who crossed paths with the terrorist Chérif Chekatt remember.

Tears flow in the immense “Grands Trials” courtroom of the Paris courthouse, on the Ile de la Cité. After the hearings of relatives of Chérif Chekatt the day before, the victims of the attack of 11 December 2018 recount this evening at the Christmas market which turned their lives upside down.

Their names are Julien, Loïc, or Jeanne. Before the 11th December 2018, they did not know each other. But for five years, they have shared the same memories, the same traumas. Julien is the first to speak. Glasses on his nose, curly hair, gray shirt, he speaks in a low voice, interspersing parts of sentences, long silences and taking a long breath.

“I would like to testify today to get through this. I have psychiatric follow-up, I take medication and I would like to stop to return to a normal life”he begins before asking for a glass of water.

They felt the duty to help me even though they had no obligation to do so.

Julian

Victim of the Strasbourg attack

Julien, now 28 years old, thanks Loïc and Françoise, passers-by who helped him that evening. “They felt the duty to help me even though they had no obligation to do so. Without them, I would have died.”, continues the one who was cycling home from university that evening. After parking at Place du Marché-Neuf, he came across Chérif Chekatt, who had just killed two people in Rue des Orfèvres.

“This man called out to me, I took off my headphones. He blocked my path and asked me what my name was and if I was a Christian. I had exams so not much time. Out of politeness , I replied ‘nothing at all’ to shorten the discussion”he continues with misty eyes.

“There were very rapid movements in my abdomen. I moved away and when I realized that he had just stabbed me, I was very scared.” Julien will be seriously affected in several places in the small intestine.

By taking refuge in the rue des Orfèvres, the adrenaline goes away. “I am in very, very bad pain and I collapse in pain. Civilians are there, take my phone and give me first aid to prevent me from bleeding out”he remembers.

One of these civilians is called Loïc. Former Paris firefighter, he was in the city center of Strasbourg on 11 December. “When I heard the gunshots, I said to myself that people would need help. I saw a first person with a bullet in the head, another injured in the arm. Then a young man lying with his viscera on the ground, it was Julien.”

Very moved, he remembers the atmosphere of chaos which then reigned in the rue des Orfèvres. “It was horror. People were screaming. But what disturbed me the most were the people at the windows who were taking photos and who didn’t come out. Help arrived very slowly and Julien was losing a lot of blood. We tried as best we could to wake him up.”

Julien also remembers the long wait before help intervened. “I was evacuated three quarters of an hour after the attack began. For long minutes, there were only civilians. The terrorist could have returned. We shared a feeling of abandonment as the attack progressed. as we waited for help.”

“I was afraid that they would abandon me, I was afraid of dying in the cold, alone, of not being able to speak to my brother, to my parents. I thought those were my last thoughts “continues Julien.

We had a very strong connection with Julien, it kept him awake

Loïc, also very moved, remembers yelling at the windows for blankets to be sent to him. “It took a while to get them, so I gave him my coat. We had a very strong connection with Julien, it kept him awake.”

Under emergency surgery, Julien will recover, but the trauma is still there. “I am infinitely grateful to all the people who saved my life that evening”, concludes Julien, who returns to his seat in the courtroom. After his testimony, Loïc goes towards him and hugs him.

Joan was 19 years on the day of the attack. “December 11 marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life for me. I saw a first person being executed with a bullet to the head. Then a second man, who did not have time to escape, was executed in the same way”remembers the one coming out of the family cheese dairy on rue des Orfèvres.

Saved by a colleague who helped her take refuge, Jeanne was hit in the arm. “That day, I lost my carefreeness, my naivety and my optimism. This man, to whom I never harmed, made the decision to turn my life upside down and take away those of innocent people. “

Since the attack, I no longer enter a room without analyzing an exit point

Jane

Victim of the attack

Since then, Jeanne has been subject to panic attacks, nightmares and hypersensitivity. “Since the attack, I no longer enter a room without analyzing an exit point”she continues, adding that the “harassment perpetuated by the press in the days and weeks that followed” have made him feel like he has been labeled a “victim” ever since.

“I don’t understand how we can help someone provide him with a weapon and not know that he was going to use it”, she concludes before joining her family and hugging her mother. The start of four days of hearings from victims, direct or indirect, of the ten minutes of horror that Chérif Chekatt spread in the city center of Strasbourg more than five years ago years.