from Al Jazeera Jan. 7, 2015
Gunmen stormed the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in central Paris on Wednesday, leaving at least 12 people dead and sparking a massive manhunt for the killers.
Clad all in black with hoods and machine guns and speaking flawless French, the three attackers, who are now believed to be on the run, forced one of the publication’s cartoonists, Corinne Rey, who was at the office with her young daughter, to open the door. In an interview with the newspaper L’Humanité, she said the entire shooting, which left 10 journalists and two police officers dead, lasted about five minutes.
French media outlets have reported that police have identified the three suspects.
Staff members of the magazine, which has courted controversy for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, were in an editorial meeting at the time. The gunmen headed straight for thepaper’s editor, Stéphane Charbonnier — widely known by his pen name, Charb — killing him and his police bodyguard, said Christophe Crepin, a police union spokesman on the scene.
Minutes later, gunmen were seen walking to a black car waiting below, calmly firing on a police officer, with one of the killers shooting him in the head as he writhed on the ground.
“Hey! We avenged the Prophet Muhammad! We killed Charlie Hebdo,” one of the men shouted…
