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Music critic, lawyer and U.S. student are among victims of Paris attack

 
A woman lays flowers for the victims of the deadly attacks in Paris, outside the French embassy in London, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015.  [Matt Dunham | Associated Press]
A woman lays flowers for the victims of the deadly attacks in Paris, outside the French embassy in London, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. [Matt Dunham | Associated Press]
Published Nov. 14, 2015

As people around the world joined Parisians in mourning for the people killed in Friday's terrorist attacks, the identities of the victims, which included a young lawyer, a music critic and an American college student, slowly began to emerge.

One of the first to be named was a 26-year-old lawyer named Valentin Ribet, who was killed at the Bataclan concert hall, according to his firm, Hogan Lovells. Ribet, who had degrees from the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne, specialized in white-collar crime.

"This is an awful tragedy and hard for any of us to truly comprehend," Hogan Lovells said in a statement. "We are shocked by both our loss and the wider events in the city."

Of Ribet, the firm said: "He was a talented lawyer, extremely well liked, and a wonderful personality in the office."

Throughout the day, families struggled to find information about missing loved ones. They visited hospitals and morgues and turned to social media, posting photographs and messages to Twitter using hashtags like #rechercheParis, or Paris search.

Many of the victims appeared to be in their 20s and 30s, out on a cool autumn night enjoying dinner at a cafe or a concert at one of Paris' most popular locations. By Saturday, Paris was a different city with public spaces like museums, schools, libraries and markets shuttered, and the daily rhythms of one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities silenced. In addition to the 129 reported dead Saturday, 352 were injured, 99 seriously, according to the French authorities.

Several foreigners appeared to have been killed in the attacks. Among them was an American student from California State University in Long Beach named Nohemi Gonzalez, 23. Gonzalez was a junior who was spending a semester at the Strate School of Design in Paris, the university said in a statement. Nearly 80 foreign exchange students from the university are studying in France, the statement said.

"We will extend all support necessary to comfort them," the university's president, Jane Close Conoley, said in a statement. "We will also extend support to all students, faculty and staff who are in need."

Most of the carnage Friday occurred at the Bataclan, a 150-year-old music hall, where at least 80 people were killed during a sold-out show by the American band Eagles of Death Metal. Guillaume B. Decherf, 43, a critic at a French culture magazine called Les Inrocks, had written about the band for the Oct. 28 issue and attended the concert. A father of two, he was one of those killed, the magazine said.

Delphine De Peretti, a 35-year-old project manager, learned of the attacks last night after leaving the theater in London, where she lives. She immediately called her sister, Aurelie, 33, who was in Paris and had attended the concert at the Bataclan. There was no answer.

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On Saturday morning, De Peretti said she took the Eurostar train from London to Paris and joined her mother, who had come up from her home in the south of France.

"We spent all morning looking for her," she said.

Then her mother got a call from the Paris medical examiner's office asking her to come by.

"They told us my sister was dead but they did not let us see her," she said, adding, "I am like a robot. I don't know what to do next. I have not watched the news or slept since last night."

Speaking outside a counseling center, still holding a suitcase, De Peretti described her sister as fond of music and culture; she loved to draw since she was a child.

"My only concern right now is to be able to bring back her body and bring her with us to the south of France," she said.