Ex-girlfriend of Bataclan victim describes moment he died in her arms

Nick Alexander
Nick Alexander

The ex-girlfriend of Eagles Of Death Metal roadie Nick Alexander has described the moment he died in her arms.

Helen Wilson was at the Bataclan in Paris with Alexander when three extremists burst in and killed the band’s 35-year-old merchandise manager along with 88 other people attending the gig on November 13 last year.

Essex coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at the inquest, the Guardian reports.

Wilson, who remained close friends with Alexander after the end of their two-year relationship, provided a written statement to the inquest.

She says: “Nick and I were still talking, I told him not to move and keep his eyes closed. We were playing at being dead.”

The shooters approached Alexander and Wilson and she says she tried to protect him by wrapping her legs around him.

She adds: “The man was tall and had dark hair, he came in our direction and started shooting. I tried to protect Nick by covering his body with my legs and wrapping my arms.

“We were holding hands the whole time. He told me that it was hard to breathe so I told him to squeeze my hand and was telling him to stay with me.”

Wilson tried to give Alexander mouth-to-mouth, when she heard a bomb detonate. She adds: “I protected myself and asked Nick if he was OK, he said, ‘I’m going to die.’ I told him that he wasn’t, he said he couldn’t breathe.

“I could tell he had already died. At the time I was holding Nick he felt cold and his eyes had changed, his body was lifeless.”

Two of the three Bataclan attackers died when they detonated suicide vests. The other was shot and killed by police.

In total, 130 people were murdered during a series of coordinated attack in Paris on November 13 last year.

EODM have since returned to play in Paris.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.