Muslim worker, hero, saved customers

A Muslim worker at the Paris supermarket where Amedy Coulibaly took hostages and died in a gunfight with police is being hailed as a hero after he saved customers who were in the store when the terrorist entered. When Coulibaly came into the supermarket and started shooting 24 year old Lassana Bathily thought quickly, and he led several customers into the basement walk in freezer at Hyper Cache where they hid until the siege was over and they were rescued. When interviewed by the media Lassana Bathily said “I opened the door, and several people came in with me. I turned off the lights, I turned off the freezer, and they got into the freezer. I told them to calm down, to not make noise. If he knows we’re here, he can come down and kill us.”

The hero Muslim worker who is being praised because of his actions that saved customers did not hide in the freezer with everyone else, he was courageous enough to exit the store using a freight elevator. When Bathily finally escaped the police initially thought he was one of the gunmen and he was handcuffed. Once the officers realized that Lassana was a store employee he helped them by describing the floor plan and layout of the store as well as the location of the saved customers that he helped hide before leaving. Bathily stated “When they got out, they congratulated me. They said, “Honestly, thank you for having thought of that,” and I said, “You’re welcome. It’s nothing, that’s life.”