AMID SPRING sunshine and the sound of birdsong, the cortege made its way past armed policemen on to the quiet residential street where all four victims were shot dead within seconds of each other on Monday.
Friends wept quietly and comforted one another. One woman threw herself on to a car bonnet and just yelled.
In the hearse were the bodies of Jonathan Sandler, the 30-year-old rabbi who had tried to shield the children when a gunman opened fire at the school gate; his two sons Gabriel and Arieh, aged four and five; and seven-year-old Myriam Monsonego, the school principal’s daughter. Witnesses said the killer pursued Myriam into the school grounds, grabbed her by the hair and shot her at point-blank range.
The final journey was to take them to Paris and then to Israel for burial in Jerusalem today.
Among the mourners will be Marc Alloul, whose niece Eva has lost her husband and two sons. Only her one-year-old daughter survives. Pushing back tears, Mr Alloul – a restaurateur from Paris – said he had stayed with Eva through Monday night. In the apartment, clothes they had bought for an upcoming holiday are still in their wrapping.
“What kills me is to see the little girl,” said Mr Alloul after prayers at the school yesterday. “All night she yelled, ‘Papa, papa’. The same again this morning. It strikes at your heart. You can’t imagine how hard it is.”
Police reported no significant progress yesterday in the hunt for the killer behind three shooting incidents in and around Toulouse in the past 10 days. The terror alert in the region has been raised to its highest level, which implies an attack is imminent.
Outside the Ozar Hatorah school, candles had been placed beneath a fence pierced by six bullet holes, and bouquets of flowers were piled up on the ground. “You will forever be angels,” read one note. “Muslim parents with you,” said another.
The school was due to reopen today, with psychologists on hand to help the children cope with their trauma. Armed policemen will remain posted at the gate, as they will outside all religious schools and buildings in Toulouse, until the killer – suspected of having also shot dead three soldiers last week – is caught.
At the prayer service, Mr Alloul sat beside a 16-year-old boy who couldn’t stop crying. The boy explained that the gunman’s bullets had just missed him.
He found Gabriel Sandler, who had taken two bullets to the head, and picked him up.
“I ran with him,” the boy told Mr Alloul. “I gave him mouth-to-mouth. He regained consciousness, but then died on the way to the hospital.”
As for the gunman, Mr Alloul was categorical. “I feel hatred towards that person. I hope with all my heart that they find him. He must be stopped.”
