Local Cartoonist, Ex-Pat React To Paris Massacre
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) --The door outside the Alliance Française in Minneapolis held a sign Thursday that read, "Je Suis Charlie," echoing support seen around the world for the victims of the shooting at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine.
Inside, there was a moment of silence for the victims.
"Geography makes this loss even harder to accept," Alliance Française Director Christina Bouzouina said. "So that's why it's so important we're here today."
Noelle Bensaad of Minneapolis, who is both French and Muslim, had sent her children to Paris for their winter break to visit her sister. When she got the call about the shooting, she was in shock.
"I was just trying to process, you can't quite believe it," Bensaad said. "I'm an Arab, Muslim, French woman living here, so it's very sad. I mean, it doesn't represent any of us."
Star Tribune Editorial Cartoonist Steve Sack says he had met some of the victims of the shooting at a festival.
"I got to know them. I know what they're like," Sack said. "If the terrorists think that they can shut them up, they have another thing coming."
Charlie Hebdo was firebombed in 2011 for satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. The magazine already plans to publish a new issue despite the attacks.
It's a move celebrated in Paris and around the world, says Jonathan Kealing, the president-elect of the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalism.
"In the hearts of people from Buenos Aires to Brussels, to Paris to New York, to Minneapolis, free speech matters and people are willing to stand up and fight for it," Kealing said.
The two suspects still on the loose are brothers in their early 30s who are French citizens.
A third suspected gunmen already turned himself into police after learning his name was linked to the massacre.