A young man who survived January’s terrorist attack at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris plans to file a complaint against the state for not doing enough to prevent the incident, the French outlet BMF TVreported on Thursday.
Amedy Coulibaly was the suspect in the killing of a police officer a day before he took hostages at a branch of the kosher supermarket chain in Paris. A man named David told BMF TV he finds the state at “fault” for not releasing a photo of the gunman prior to the attack.
David believes authorities waited too long to release information on and a photo of Coulibaly, who killed four hostages before being shot and killed by authorities during the supermarket siege on Jan. 9. David said the slaughter could have been averted if a “wanted” poster had been circulated. He intends to sue for millions of euros in damages, according to BFM TV.
“I do not know if it could have changed something, but maybe 5 minutes before (the taking of hostages in the supermarket) someone would have seen him arrive by car,” David told the news outlet. “That’s what happened for the Kouachi brothers [behind the Charlie Hebdo attack]. They were located in a gas station, it allowed somehow to locate him. It could have been the same for Coulibaly.”
David had stopped his car by the kosher supermarket on the day of the attack and saw an armed Coulibaly enter the store and open fire, according to BFM TV. He fled before police arrived at the scene. Authorities later asked him to identify the attacker, showing him a photo of Coulibaly.
David’s lawyer, Axel Metzker, said: “When you have a criminal record, the course of Amedy Coulibaly and antisemitic premeditation of Kouachi brothers, doing nothing is an administrative fault. The responsibility is of the state.”
Authorities argued that they did not release information about Coulibaly to the public earlier, so as not to lose the element of surprise in nabbing him, BFM TV reported.
