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World editor Owen Ullmann talks about the Paris attacks and how home-grown terrorism is often impossible for officials to prevent. USA TODAY
Police officers stand in front of HyperCasher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris on Jan. 10, 2015, a day after a gunman took hostages there.(Photo: Olivier Hoslet, European Pressphoto Agency)
A Muslim supermarket employee is being hailed as a hero after he hid customers during the Jewish grocery store massacre that left four dead in Paris on Friday.
Lassana Bathily, 24, a store employee and a Muslim man from Mali, led 15 people downstairs to safety, hiding several inside a freezer in the grocery's basement, according to French broadcaster BFMTV.
"I went down to the freezer, I opened the door, there were several people who went in with me. I turned off the light and the freezer," Bathily told the television station. "I brought them inside and I told them to stay calm here, I'm going to go out. When they got out, they thanked me."
Gunman Amedy Coulibaly, 32, killed four when he opened fire on the store before taking hostages. Police later stormed the store in an eruption of gunshots and explosions, rescuing 15 hostages and killing Coulibaly.
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In an address to the nation Friday evening, French President François Hollande said the deadly attack on the market was unquestionably "an anti-Semitic attack."
Malik Zadi, a 25-year-old Muslim of Algerian heritage, told The Washington Post that the attack was aimed at Jews but noted that Muslims were likely to be hostages, as well. "It's a kosher store, but not only Jews go there. I go there," Zadi said. "In this neighborhood, there are Muslims, Jews, Christians. It's like Paris. It's a melting pot. Cohabitation."
Reports indicated Bathily was able to slip out of the store using either a freight elevator or a contraption similar to a dumbwaiter. He was then able to get to police and provide information that helped the officers end the standoff.
However, Bathily also told BFMTV that police stopped him as he was making his escape. "They told me, get down on the ground, hands over your head," the store employee said. "They cuffed me and held me for an hour and a half as if I was with (the gunman)."
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Since the incident, Bathily has become a hero on the Web with many paying tribute to his courage via the hashtag #UneMedaillePourLassana (a medal for Lassana).
"It is time to restore the image of the Legion of Honor (France's highest honor, equivalent to America's Medal of Honor) awarding it to everyday heroes like Lassana Bathily," one person wrote on Twitter.
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