Survivor describes how supermarket gunman killed customer who confronted him

A customer at the kosher supermarket in Paris managed to snatch one of the terrorist’s guns during the hostage crisis at the site, a survivor who wished to be known as Mickael B has told the French Le Point.

The customer turned the gun on Amedy Coulibaly but discovered the weapon was jammed. The terrorist then executed the customer on spot.

“I was heading for the check-out with the goods in my hand when I heard a bang – very loud,” said Mickael, who had entered the store with his 3-year-old son.

“I thought it was a firecracker at first. But turning I saw a black man armed with two Kalashnikov rifles and I knew what was happening.”

“I grabbed my son by the collar and fled to the back of the store. There, with other customers, we ran down a spiral staircase into the basement. We all piled into one of two cold rooms – our door wouldn’t close. We were terrified.”

“Five minutes later a store employee was sent down by the killer. She said he said we were to go back up otherwise there’d be carnage. I refused to go up.”

“By now my son, understanding nothing, was panicking. Then minutes later the employee comes back down with the same message. This time I decided to follow her up the spiral staircase.”

“At the top a man was dying in a pool of his own blood. The terrorist introduced himself to us. He was strangely calm. ‘I am Amedi Coulibaly, Malian and Muslim. I belong to the Islamic State,’ he told us.”

“Then he told us to put our phones on the ground. He walked around the store, armed, totally justifying himself, speaking of Palestine, French prisons, his brothers in Syria and many other things.

“Suddenly one of the customers tried to grab one of his guns which he’d left on the counter. It wasn’t working. The terrorist had put it there because it had blocked after the first shots,” Mickael told Le Point.

“He turned and shot at the customer who died on the spot.”