Teenagers kissing on the lawn, tourists taking multiple selfies on the reflecting pool, cyclists returning from school or work... It's hard to believe that here, on the quiet quays, the evening of Thursday ended in blood. The red and white ribbon of the national police still hanging flies in the wind, a vestige of the few hours when a security perimeter was set up for the investigation after a man killed and injured another with a knife, before being shot dead by police.
With the reopening of the premises this Friday, Chris couldn't help but return to the site, between shock and disbelief. The day before, the thirty-year-old was drinking a beer with his colleagues right in front of the reflecting pool when he heard two gunshots. “It was when I saw the number of police officers and the body on the ground that I understood that it was serious,” says the thirty-year-old.
“A lot of my friends come out this way, I was afraid to recognize them on the stretcher”
“A lot of my friends come out this way, I was afraid to recognize them on the stretcher,” he whispers. Of the attacker he only saw his outfit, “a long dress like men who go to the Mosque wear” and “his calm demeanor, he was just walking in circles a little”.
The situation degenerated very quickly. The assailant insults two men of Algerian origin, accusing them of drinking alcohol after Eid (which marks the end of Ramadan). Tone up. To the blows that the two friends then received, they responded by throwing cans of beer, Frédérique Porterie, the Bordeaux prosecutor, detailed this Friday during a press conference.
The attacker returned to the charge, equipped with a hunting knife according to witnesses, and dealt nine fatal blows to Rachid Bouach, 36, and three to Saleh Kharat, hospitalized in absolute emergency, in a still very weak condition. this Thursday. A bartender at the Vintage Bar suddenly realized the seriousness of the incident: “A young man who spoke very quickly asked me if he could wash his hands, which were full of blood. He had applied a compression stitch to one of the victims while waiting for help. »
Seven minutes after the attack, the alerted police arrived near the Pont de Pierre. The crew, equipped with an assault rifle as part of the Vigipirate plan, “was a few meters from the attacker, who threatened them with his knife while getting closer,” said the prosecutor. After the warnings, they fired and the man was shot dead.
Thirty minutes before the tragedy, he allegedly attacked two other people
The perpetrator is said to be of Afghan origin and aged 25, according to initial information from the European database of asylum seekers which remains to be verified. “Thirty minutes before the tragedy, he also allegedly attacked two other people who were drinking a glass of rosé by punching them twice, elbowing them and brandishing his knife,” referring to Eid.
Two investigations were opened, one for “murder” and “attempted murder” where the terrorist motive was not accepted, the other to examine the circumstances in which the police shooting was carried out. According to the magistrate, who entrusted this second investigation to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), the state of self-defense is “considered” in view of the first elements collected.
If life seems to have quickly resumed its course in Bordeaux, the city mediators had set up a tent this Friday a few steps from the tragedy, “to communicate with the inhabitants attached to this tourist place and direct them if necessary to the open telephone line by the medico-psychological unit” explains Eléonore Bécat, responsible for mediation for the city.