Paris Officer Shooting: Witness Regrets Posting Video, A ‘Stupid Reflex’

Worldwide, the video that captured the attack of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and execution of Paris police officer, Ahmed Merabet, has unleashed a wave of disgust and anger. Artists, writers, and people around the world have responded to the terrorist attack in Paris, France. But the author of the video that has captured their attention regrets sharing the footage online.

Previously reported by the Inquisitr, Arab editorial cartoonists have shown support for Charlie Hebdo, risking their lives in support of freedom of speech. The hacker group Anonymous has declared war on terrorists to avenge the Charlie Hebdo massacre. While in Paris, the Eiffel Tower going dark was a tribute to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting, atheist Richard Dawkins calls Islam “violent.”

The engineer, Jordi Mir, told the Associated Press that he posted the video in the midst of fear and was a “stupid reflex.”

During the traumatic event, Mir was alone and afraid.

“I had to speak to someone,” Mir said. “I was alone in my flat. I put the video on Facebook. That was my error.”

Mir said he left the video on Facebook for as little as 15 minutes before thinking better and should take it down. By time Mir reacted to take down the video, it had already gone viral and been shared across the site and uploaded to other social media and YouTube. He was startled to find that the video he took was soon broadcasting on his television screen.

In its unedited form, the 42-second film shows two masked gunmen — brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi — as they walk toward a prone police officer, later identified as 42-year-old Ahmed Merabet.

“You want to kill us?” one of the brothers says as he strides toward the wounded officer.

“No, it’s OK, boss,” Merabet says, raising his hand in an apparent plea for mercy.

Then he’s shot in the head.

The following video includes the video by Mir of the Paris shooting, but the video excludes the moment when officer Ahmed Merabet is executed.

Jori Mir said it was a reaction from having used social media for years. Mir, a man in his 50s whose parents were refugees from fascist Spain, is still not able to grasp why he felt compelled to share the video.

“There’s no answer,” he said. “I take a photo — a cat — and I put it on Facebook. It was the same stupid reflex.”

As the video is repeated across news media, the family of the murdered officer endure seeing their relative, Ahmed Merabet, being slaughtered every day.

“How dare you take that video and broadcast it?” Merabet’s brother Malek asked journalists Saturday. “I heard his voice. I recognized him. I saw him get slaughtered and I hear him get slaughtered every day.”

Mir wanted Merabet’s family to know he was “very sorry,” reported the Associated Press, saying that he had turned down offers to buy the footage and that he wanted media organizations to blur Merabet’s image before running it. But many, he said, just broadcast the unedited footage without permission.

[Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]