Photojournalist can’t get the images of the Paris attacks out of his head

Photojournalist Shane Thomas McMillan was in Paris last Friday night visiting a friend when he heard what sounded like firecrackers coming from next door.

"It was obviously much more serious than that," says McMillan.

It turns out his friend lived right next door to the Bataclan, the Paris theater where terrorists came in with machine guns and grenades, taking people hostage and killing dozens of concert goers.

McMillan says he waited until the gunshots subsided and then went downstairs to see what was going on. The courtyard of his friend's building became the triage center for the wounded coming out of the building.

Many people were covered in blood, looking for loved ones who were still inside the theater. A week later, McMillan breaks down when he talks about what he saw that night.

"As just a bystander I feel pretty traumatized by the whole thing, and I don't know how those people who were inside are waking up in the morning," he says.

McMillan says throughout the night, he checked on one woman who had been inside the theater. He finally asked her what happened and she told him that "everyone hit the ground and these guys went around executing people and anyone who ran for the door was shot down."

He says he has been thinking about that woman every day since the attacks. He also thinks about a man he met whose face was covered in blood and who spent the evening last Friday looking for his girlfriend who he last saw inside, before the gunfire broke out. 

"Every time I think of my own partner, I think of him, and whether he found her."