Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Paul Moreira in his office in Paris on April 3, 2015. The documentary maker and journalist is the head of a company that shared a building with the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo." Moreira's staff were the first to respond to the incident that killed 12 people, including the newspaper's editor.(Photo: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY)
PARIS — Three months after brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, the alarm is still sounding — literally.
"It's a crime scene. We're not allowed to go in there to turn it off, " said Paul Moreira, a journalist and documentary maker who runs Premières Lignes, a TV production company. It is situated across the hall from where editor Stéphane Charbonnier, four cartoonists, the building's caretaker and six others were massacred Jan. 7 in the worst terrorist attack on French soil in modern times.
USA TODAY
Paris tries to move beyond its three days of terror
Moreira, 53, is a well-known investigative journalist who has reported from some of the world's most dangerous trouble spots, from Somalia to Syria. His employees were the first to attend to Charlie Hebdo's dead, injured and dying.
"I have seen many dead bodies in places like Iraq, but seeing it (death) right there on my doorstep just didn't match with my previous experiences," he said.
The caretaker's booth at the building that housed French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" when it was attacked by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi on Jan. 7., 2015.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY)
The alarm he is not permitted to turn off sits inside the small, street-level room occupied by caretaker Frederic Boisseau, who was shot dead by the Kouachis after they asked him how to find the offices of the newspaper they believed had offended Islam.
Only minutes before, the pair had burst through the wrong door of the building in one of Paris' most densely populated districts.
"I hope one day they will shut it off, because it's kind of strange," said Moreira, reflecting on the constant drone that has greeted him each day since Premières Lignes moved back into the building a week after the massacre. The sound is not a high-pitched squeal suggesting an emergency, but a low hum.
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
Three months after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, France and other nations are soul-searching about the Muslim and other religious extremists living in their own country.
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed