A “horrible” evening marked by the death of a 21-year-old young man. For Halloween, Lucie* did not expect to experience such a night. With friends, the 27-year-old young woman chose to go to the “Mille club”, a nightclub near the A4 motorway. About fifteen minutes north of Strasbourg, precisely in Bernolsheim (Bas-Rhin).
“I had already been there twice and had problems. The bouncers speak badly, there are a lot of trash… But where I live, there isn’t much. It’s the biggest company closest to us, so we don’t have much choice,” she tells 20 Minutes.
At 11:30 p.m., Lucie was there… but still far from the entrance to the building. “We had reservations but even in the parking lane, there was a wait of more than an hour. It was already a mess. » But nothing compared to what she then experienced inside, according to her.
“We were against each other, compressed”
“The normal capacity is a little more than 1,000 people but there we should have been three times as many. I heard figures from people who work there, it was 3,000 to 4,000. We were super tight,” continues Lucie, who barely took advantage of the dance floor. “We almost didn’t go there because when I went to smoke, it took me twenty minutes to walk ten meters and an hour to return. We were against each other, compressed… I found myself stuck against a high table and I still have a big bruise because people were pushing me to pass. »
No reason, therefore, to want to drag on forever. But the young woman had time to witness a fight. The scene is still circulating on social networks: we see a man being beaten by several others. He even gets knocked out with a glass bottle. “But it has nothing to do with the homicide. This is a guy who defended his gay friend,” assures Lucie, speaking of another attack, “in the parking lot, when a girl was hit by a guy and no one did anything. There was no security. »
“Quite a few girls were taken care of”
She also insists on this point: “the atmosphere was heavy. It was dangerous. » The young woman also remembers seeing people “taking out knives from the smoking corner. They wanted to show that they had been able to enter with (…) There were no searches, it was really nonsense. »
At 2:30 a.m., Lucie left with her friends. More than two hours before the death of a young man. But help was already there. “There were so many of us that there was some discomfort. I saw quite a few girls being taken care of. » Until the firefighters tried, in vain, to save the 21-year-old young man who had just received a “stab wound to the chest”, according to the prosecution. It was then around 5 a.m.
“I will never go there again”
“I was able to speak with relatives of the victim and they told me that it was linked to a stampede. It then increased pressure and that’s it,” continues the young woman, who dismantles the theories of racist or homophobic homicide launched on social networks. “I will never go there again,” she concluded, marked.
Contacted, the management of the “Mille club” did not respond to 20 Minutes. In a press release, the managers expressed their “immense sadness”. “Our thoughts are with the family of the victim to whom we send our support and our most sincere thoughts. », they write again. The location has been closed until further notice. Definitely ? An online petition is calling for it and has already collected more than 1,100 signatures.
*His first name has been changed
