July 14, 2002 was a pleasant Sunday in Paris, sunny but not too hot, nor too cool. A Canadian school teacher was about to make history.
Tens of thousands lined the famous Champs Elysees to watch the parade celebrating France’s Bastille Day.
The French President, Jacques Chirac, was also in the parade, standing tall in the back of an open military vehicle.
As he passes a particular spot a scuffle breaks out and a sharp crack is heard from within the crowd.
A young man, Maxime Brunerie who had been carrying a guitar case, had just bent down, opened the case and removed a .22 calibre rifle.
Mohammed Chelali, originally from Algeria was then a teacher from British Columbia on a visit to Paris. He was standing just out of arms reach away, when he saw the 25-year-old raise the rifle and point it in Chirac’s direction.
Chelali immediately leapt toward the man and grabbed the barrel pushing it up just as Brunerie fired.
Another man then pushed Brunerie to the ground while a third joined to hold him.
Brunerie was then trying to point the barrel at himself to commit suicide but failed as he and the gun were tightly held.
Chelali later said he had no thought about what he was doing, he just acted, only later thinking that police snipers were everywhere and they might have mistook him, holding on to the gun, as the would-be assassin.
Brunerie was known to have connections to extreme right wing groups but was deemed to have been acting alone and not with a particular political purpose. He is alleged to have told friends to watch TV that day and it was determined after psychiatric investigation that his goal was to achieve fame by shooting someone famous and then to be killed in front of TV cameras, either by suicide or be killed by police.
Chelali who was on his way to a temporary teaching assignment in Lebanon, was later phoned and thanked by the French President. In 2003 Chelali was honoured at a ceremony at the French Consulate in Vancover where he was named as a Knight in the Legion d’honneur, one of France’s highest honours..
The gunman was later deemed to be emotionally disturbed but was sentenced to ten years. He was released from prison seven years later.
Jacques Chirac, who had previously been Prime Minister of France, and Mayor of Paris, served as President from 1995 to 2007.
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