At the trial of the Nice attack, photographs trace the deadly race of the truck

Thierry Pereira, police officer in charge of the first findings in the area where the truck was located after its immobilization, at the trial of the Nice attacks, in Paris, on September 9, 2022. ERWAN FARGES FOR “THE WORLD”

The courtroom is plunged into darkness and silence. On the giant screen, the photo of a dense crowd attending a concert on the Promenade des Anglais. The faces are smiling. A woman carries a child in her arms. Everyone is looking towards the stage. Nobody guesses the white truck, right there, in the background, a meter behind, launched at high speed. The impact will take place in a fraction of a second. The image is appalling.

“People don’t see the truck coming and don’t hear it either, probably because of the music at the concert”, assumes the policeman who testifies at the bar of the specially composed Assize Court of Paris. The president of the court, Laurent Raviot, cannot withhold a comment: “It’s terrifying, because we measure the effect of surprise. People don’t realize anything. »

Read the story: Article reserved for our subscribers More than six years after the Nice attack, a terrorist trial without author or accomplice

This image, which marked the hearing on Friday, September 9, is a screenshot taken from the recordings of the five CCTV cameras that filmed the route of the truck at the wheel of which Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel killed 86 people, in Nice, on July 14, 2016. In the hours following the attack, a police officer from the Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate, whose anonymity is guaranteed by law and referred to in the file as “SDAT 58”, was dispatched to the scene with the mission to view these images – the idea was to find the trace of a possible complicity.

Friday, he was at the helm to tell what he saw, and what the public should see in turn, Thursday, September 15. The president of the court is favorable to the diffusion of the recordings. No one opposes it, but defense lawyers and representatives of the prosecution have reservations. They are worried about the mental health of those who will see these videos. “You have to bear in mind the dread that this viewing will causeinsisted the Advocate General, Jean-Michel Bourlès. We are not going to see dead bodies. There, we are going to witness the murder of these people live, their physical dismemberment, it will be particularly unbearable. »

Four minutes and 17 seconds of horror

While waiting for this screening, the few dozen civil parties dispersed in the large courtroom therefore listened to SDAT 58. His story, minute by minute, then the twenty or so screen captures he had broadcast provided an overview of the horror that occurred that evening between 10:33 p.m. and 27 seconds, first image of the truck on the sidewalk of the Promenade des Anglais, and 10:37 p.m. and 44 seconds, time of the “neutralization” of the driver.

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