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Two Times Lucky: American Man Who Escaped Bataclan Had Also Survived 9/11

By Mohit Priyadarshi
Published on: 04:30 PST, Nov 22, 2015

An American man who managed to escape the Bataclan gunmen during last week’s Paris attacks had also survived 9/11, reports the Independent.

Matthew, whose full name has not been disclosed to keep his identity safe, was attending the Eagles of Death Metal gig in the Bataclan theater last Friday when two gunmen stormed into the building with their Kalashnikovs and began firing indiscriminately.

As soon as he heard the gunshots, he ran for the exit at the back end of the theater.

“Perhaps it’s my American culture,” he added.

However, the gunmen caught up with the 36-year-old man, and he was shot in the leg. When the Bataclan attackers came close to him — “two to three meters,” according to his description of the scene — Matthew pretended to be dead and dragged himself to safety as the killers reloaded their weapons.

“I inched forward centimeter by centimeter. At one point, I saw the ledge of the exit at arm’s reach,” he told French newspaper Le Monde. “I was able to grip it with one finger, then the other.”

Incredibly, once outside, he was spotted by Le Monde correspondent Daniel Psenny, whose video of the shootings from his bedroom window went viral last week.

Mr. Psenny, on finding Matthew on the street near his house, rushed downstairs to provide him refuge. However, one of the gunmen spotted him doing so and aimed for him. Like Matthew, Mr. Psenny was hit in the leg. His act of heroism has earned him the praise of thousands of well-wishers from around the world.

“I had the human reflex not to let someone die in front of me, but it was the circumstances that allowed it,” Psenny had said in a report published by Le Monde. “If I had been under machine gun fire, I no doubt wouldn’t have come to get Matthew.”

According to his description of the night’s events, the two remained in Mr. Psenny’s flat for several hours before police allowed local residents to leave the building, and the injured pair were taken to the nearby George Pompidou hospital.

It was a close shave for both Matthew and Mr. Psenny. But, as it turned out, the American man had been in the same situation before (sort of) and had miraculously escaped last time, too!

During the 9/11 attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001, Matthew was present at the foot of the World Trade Center heading to a work meeting when a United Airlines plane struck one of the twin towers, according to the Telegraph.

The man said that he had to run like a maniac after the planes struck the Twin Towers. He watched in astonishment as the towers came crumbling down in the next few hours.

“I sprinted across half of Manhattan. But what I went through in the Bataclan was 1,000 times worse.”

However, Matthew concedes that the Bataclan experience was way worse for him on a personal level, since he had almost given up the idea of ever living again during the Paris attacks. He was extremely grateful to Mr. Psenny for having saved him.

“When I felt someone dragging me by the arms, I didn’t even look up. I said, or at least in my head – ‘I love you, my angel.’ “

Even when the American man was finally within the safe sanctuary of Mr. Psenny’s home, he could not believe that he had managed to survive such a near-death experience — for a second time.

The pair met again at the hospital a few days later, and the two of them promised to share a glass “or probably the entire bottle” when they have fully recovered from their ordeal.

The American man had, after all, managed to defeat death twice in a row.

“I might go back to the Bataclan one day,” he added.

[Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]

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