YouTube Video: Christopher Stevens After Libya Attack
An amateur video shows what appears to be a crowd of Libyans taking Christopher Stevens to a safe room—and celebrating that he’s alive.
U.S. State Department / AP Photo
An amateur video appearing to show a motionless but apparently still alive Ambassador Christopher Stevens was posted Sunday on YouTube. The video focuses on a window of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where some members of a crowd—it is not clear if they are protesters, looters, or nearby residents drawn to the scene after the attack—discover the mortally injured Stevens and celebrate that he’s still alive.
A video caption says it was shot by Fahd al-Bakkosh, but nothing is currently known about him. Before the video surfaced, witnesses said residents had found Stevens behind a locked iron gate in the consulate, suggesting that initial reports of the ambassador having made it to a safe room in the building when militants attacked the consulate were correct.
The video shows a chaotic scene with many people talking at once. It is not always easy to hear what they are saying. But some of the exchanges include:
“I think he’s dead,” one Libyan says.
“Bring him out, man! Bring him out,” another responds and then says, “The man is alive. Move out of the way.” Then there is much shouting with people screaming, “Bring him out, man,” and “He’s still alive.”
Then several men shout: “Alive, alive! God is great.” There are cries about getting him to a car.
Doctors at the hospital Stevens was taken to say he was barely alive on arrival, died shortly after, and they were unable to revive him. They say he died of smoke inhalation.
