Doctor Gets Choked Up While Talking About Charlie Hebdo Attack
Patrick Pelloux was also a contributor to the magazine.
— -- An emergency room doctor who responded to Wednesday's massacre in Paris was also a contributor to the satirical newspaper, and he nearly broke down while talking about the incident.
Patrick Pelloux got emotional while speaking on iTele this morning, saying how he thought he was just getting called to the office as a joke by one of the graphic designers.
Pelloux said that he had been in a meeting with firefighters and first responders on a separate issue when the call came in moments after the 11:30 a.m. attack.
"When we got there it was horrible, a lot were already gone, because they gunned them down execution-style and we were able to save the others who seem to be doing well today," Pelloux said in French.
He said that he had dinner with "Charb," the paper's editor and head cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, just two nights before the attack.
"Monday night I had dinner with Charb and Luz and we were laughing about the New Year," Pelloux said. "Charb had had enough of his police protection. He protected me a lot from the full extent of the risks involved, so he didn't want to tell me that he knew that in all the meetings of fundamentalists around the world Charlie Hebdo was always discussed."
As he began to get choked up, Pelloux regained his composure in order to reiterate what he sees as the message that his friends would have wanted expressed.
"The newspaper will continue, [the terrorists] have not won. Charb, Cabu, Wolinski, Bernard Maris, Honore, Elsa, Tignous, Mustapha, the protection officer didn't die for nothing and there is no hatred to be had toward Muslims and everyone should perpetuate the values of the Republic," he said.