Randy Culpepper, living in France, talks with ABC-7

While many are dealing with the aftermath in Paris, ABC-7 had a chance to speak with at least one local in France.

ABC-7 spoke Saturday with UTEP basketball player Randy Culpepper, a well-known former University of Texas at El Paso athlete living near Paris.

Culpepper played for the Miners from 2007 to 2011.

He is now playing professional basketball for a Euroleague team in Limoges, France.

“It was late here. It was maybe midnight, one 1’clock in the morning, and my mother called me just to make sure I was doing OK,” Culpepper said.

Culpepper tells ABC-7 he was unaware of the attacks only a few hours away from his city in Limoges, where the former UTEP player lives and plays for the Limoges CSP basketball team.

It was his mother who made him aware of the attacks.

“I got on social media and just, you know, saw the outrage. Everybody just posting pictures and tweeting about it,” said Culpepper.

Culpepper tells ABC-7 he was shocked when he realized terrorists had killed more than a hundred people in France.

“Half of my mind I was thanking God that I wasn’t there because I was supposed to go there for a few days just to relax and visit,” said Culpepper.

His next thought he tells ABC-7 was for his teammates.

“A majority of my teammates are French. They have family, they have have friends in the city of Paris, and I was just more worried for them,” said Culpepper.

Culpepper tells ABC-7 he had practice early Saturday. Many of his teammates were concerned for loved ones they hadn’t heard from. Other teammates with girlfriends had accounts about the mayhem Friday night.

“She just heard a loud explosion and gunshots, and her and the people she was with at the restaurant just ran in the back and took cover and …locked the doors,” said Culpepper.

Despite the attacks Culpepper says it won’t keep him from visiting Paris.

“Any chance I do get to go to Paris I’ll still go. Of course I’ll still be cautious of my surroundings, but I’m sure I won’t go anytime soon,” Culpepper said.

Culpepper tells ABC-7 his team’s games have been canceled for now.

ABC-7 has also been in contact with New Mexico State University and UTEP’s student abroad programs to see if any students of theirs are in Paris.

NMSU is telling ABC-7 it is checking with it’s advisers and will get back with us as soon they can.

UTEP sent this statement:

“We have less than a handful of students in various locations throughout France. Everyone is safe and accounted for.”