'I've come to die a martyr,' Hyper Cacher terrorist told hostage

One year on, new images of Paris kosher supermarket siege emerge, and a survivor recalls the gunman’s chilling words

Almost a year to the day after a jihadist gunman shot dead four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris, one of the hostages in the hours-long siege told the BBC that the terrorist said he had no intention of leaving alive.

French-born Muslim terrorist Amedy Coulibaly walked into the Porte de Vincennes branch of the Hyper Cacher chain in Paris’ eastern suburbs two days after fellow Islamist terrorists shot dead 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a day after he himself shot dead a policewoman.

Coulibaly killed four people and took several hostages at gunpoint, before he was killed when police stormed the building.

His four Jewish victims — Yoav Hattab, Phillipe Barham, Yohan Cohen, and François-Michel Saada — were buried in Jerusalem.

The four victims of the Paris Hyper Cacher attack, from left to right: Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Francois-Michel Saada, Philippe Braham. (photo credit: Courtesy)

In newly released footage aired Wednesday in a BBC documentary “Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks,” Coulibaly can be heard discussing his motives with his hostages.

“There will be many more like me to come,” the 32-year-old gunman, who was armed with two Kalsashnikovs and clad in a bullet proof vest, told one woman hostage, a cashier at the store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIDTGJWimDc

The cashier also described how an unwitting customer — who entered the store minutes after the siege began and before the door was secured — became a victim.

“I shouted: ‘Go away you can’t come in, get out!’ But he said, ‘I just need some bread for Shabbat, I promise, I’ll be quick.'”

Amedy Coulibaly, who was shot dead by French police after he killed four French Jews in a kosher store on January 9, 2015, is seen in a video clip pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. (YouTube screenshot)

After seeing a body on the floor and the armed gunman, the man turned to flee the store. But Coulibaly shot him.

“He shook for about 10 seconds, then he died,” the woman recalled.

Afterwards, Coulibaly instructed her to close the supermarket doors. “I felt I was sentencing us all to death,” she said.

The footage also shows images of Yoav Hattab approaching Coulibaly before attempting to snatch the gunman’s rifle. The weapon Hattab grabbed jammed, and Coulibaly shot Hattab twice with a different gun, killing him immediately.

“I saw Yoav in a pool of blood. Lots and lots of blood,” the cashier said.

An image from CCTV footage from inside the Hyper Cacher during the siege on January 9, 2015, taken from a BBC documentary called Three Days of Terror: The Charlie Hebdo Attacks that aired January 6, 2016. (screen capture: YouTube)

She also described how she survived the ordeal by hiding underneath the checkout counter.

She said Coulibaly found a customer at the back of the store, dragged him to the cash register and shot him dead in front of her, before turning the gun on her.

“I see black army-style boots coming towards me, and then he fired again. I don’t know how he missed, I was right front of him. The bullet passed one inch from me,” she said.

According to testimony by one of the other hostages, who painted a horrific picture of the seven-hour siege inside the supermarket, Coulibaly, a self-proclaimed Islamic State member, was calm, collected, somewhat chivalrous, boastful of the murders he committed and attention-hungry during the attack. He reportedly told a French journalist at the height of the siege that he had deliberately chosen to target Jews.