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Death of Arnaud Beltrame: the testimony of Julie Grand, ex-hostage saved by the gendarme in 2018
More than five years after the Trèbes attack which left five dead, Julie, a cashier taken hostage, is still upset by the sacrifice of Arnaud Beltrame. France Télévisions met her. – (franceinfo)
More than five years after the Trèbes attack which left five dead, Julie, a cashier taken hostage, is still upset by the sacrifice of Arnaud Beltrame. France Télévisions met her.
It took six years to find the strength to put into words what she experienced. On March 23, 2018, Julie, a receptionist at a supermarket in Trèbes (Aude), found herself face to face with a terrorist. He has just killed three people, injured 15 others, and broke into the business. “I looked up and saw a shot fired into the air. I hear ‘Allah Akbar’. (…) He explains to me that he has killed enough people, that it is a small action and that he now has to die as a martyr while trying to do as much harm as possible”she remembers.
“Take me in his place”
“He slipped behind me, the gun to my head, a knife to my ribs”, she continues. While outside, the gendarmes established a perimeter, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, decides to enter. “He started to say: ‘The little lady has nothing to do with it, I’m a gendarme, I represent the State, take me in her place.’ There was a gap, I understood that it was the time for me to leave.” Arnaud Beltrame was mortally wounded a few hours later. “What helps me a lot is the professionalism he showed.”explains the one who recounted this day which turned her life upside down in a book, His life for mine. The terrorist was shot dead by the police. The trial of seven of his alleged accomplices is to be held at the end of the month.
