At around noon on January 7, two gunmen entered the newsroom of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shot dead editor-in-chief and cartoonist Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier. The Islamist attackers knew who they were looking for, calling out Charb by name, sentencing him to death for what they believed was the crime of depicting and desecrating the image of the Prophet Muhammad. According to witnesses, the attackers – 32-year-old Cherif Kouachi and his brother, 34-year-old Said Kouachi – had arrived outside the offices and were admitted by staff cartoonist Corinne “Coco” Rey. She was on her way to work, having just picked up her toddler from daycare, when the two men forced her to let them into the building. Their first kill was 42-year-old maintenance worker Frédéric Boisseau. The staff were in the midst of their first editorial meeting of the year when the gunmen burst in, shooting Charb, cartoonists Jean “Cabu” Cabut, 72; Philippe Honoré, 74; Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac, 57; and George Wolinski, 80. Also shot dead in that meeting were Bernard Maris, 68, a columnist, economist and editor; Elsa Cayat, 54, a psychoanalyst and Jewish religion columnist; French-Algerian Mustapha Ourrad, 60, a copy editor; and Franck Brinsolaro, 49, a police officer assigned as a bodyguard to Charb. Yet the two men weren't finished. When they exited the building they encountered 42-year-old police officer Ahmed Merabet; chilling amateur video shows Merabet on the ground after being shot. The fact that he was a Muslim, whether known to the terrorists or not, had no bearing – they approached and shot him in the head. The country was in shock and police were on a manhunt for the terrorist brothers, French nationals who had admitted ties to al-Qaida in Yemen. Unbeknownst to the public, the violence wasn't over. Only a few hours after the first attack, Clarissa Jean-Philippe, a rookie police officer, 15 days on the job, was gunned down while she was directing traffic in the Paris suburb of Montrouge. She was 27 years old. But on Friday, more horror took place in Paris. What at first was seen as an Islamic attack on Western values and secular society extended its reach to include France's Jews as its next target. As Jewish shoppers entered the Hyper Cacher kosher market, picking up last-minute groceries for Shabbat, an armed Islamist terrorist entered the shop, taking nearly 20 hostages in the store during a stand-off that lasted for five hours. By day's end, cashiers Yohan Cohen, 20, and Yoav Hattab, 21; and Philippe Braham, 40, and Francois-Michel Saada, 64 – all Jewish men – would be dead. One of the gunmen, identified as Amedy Coulibaly, had stated his motives clearly – he was killing Jews because of France's involvement in Muslim countries and what he called “the crimes of the Jews in Palestine.” Both Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers had called, separately, French news channel BFM-TV and told them of their intention to murder in the name of Islam, and specifically Jews. At the same time as police were trying to get the supermarket crisis under control, another hostage situation was taking place north of Paris. The brothers believed to be responsible for the attacks on Charlie Hebdo engaged in a stand-off with police at an industrial printing works office. Police shot and killed the two brothers; back in Paris, Coulibaly was killed when police stormed the market. Yet a fourth suspect managed to elude police in the ensuing chaos, and is still at large.
A woman holds a sign reading "I am Charlie" during a tribute for the victims of the Paris shootings, in Ottawa.