British businessman Chris Norman, who joined the trio and rushed the assailant on the Amsterdam to Paris train Friday, also received the award during a ceremony at the president’s official residence. “You have given a message of courage, solidarity and hope”, Hollande said.
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A Spanish counter-terrorism source said Khazzani had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014.
“You risked your lives to defend an ideal, the ideal of liberty and freedom”, Hollande said.
The public is also now hearing more about the three men from the Sacramento area being hailed as global heroes for jumping the suspect and disarming him.
The heroics aboard the train helped show that everyday people can do magnificent things when confronted with terrorism, saving their own lives and those of others. That included a French passenger and a Franco-American who has been hospitalized for his wounds.
The three Americans were on the high-speed train when a man armed with a Kalashnikov, an automatic Luger pistol and a box cutter raced through the auto. Moogalian, when he has healed, will also be awarded a Legion of Honor medal for his efforts to stop the terror attack.
It sounds like a summer blockbuster, but it was real: Three young Americans on a European tour tackled a terrorist on the verge of wreaking havoc on a busy train.
Skarlatos, a member of the National Guard who recently served in Iraq, said the trio and Norman acted on “gut instinct” to overpower the gunman.
“When he came in, he was cocking the AK-47, so it was “do something or die”, Sadler said.
On Monday, French President Francois Hollande presented France’s highest honor – the Legion of Honor – to the four foreigners. “With your bare hands, unarmed, you were able to overcome a heavily armed individual, resolved to do anything”.
Stone recalled being asleep when he heard a gunshot and acting immediately when Skarlatos hit him on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go”.
In reconstructing the faceoff, authorities found the gunman had already shot one person in an adjacent vehicle before entering the compartment where the Americans and the Briton were seated.
“I just want the lesson to be learned that… hiding or sitting back is not going to accomplish anything”.
French Interior Minister Brenard Cazeneuve said the suspect, Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan, might have links to radical Islam, but his lawyer said on French television that he was merely trying to rob the train.
Mr Stone said: “I turned around and he (the gunman) appeared to have what looked like a AK-47”.
Speaking after the ceremony, Norman said: “I think that one way or another, we are going to be facing this kind of problem quite a few times in the future, and I would invite you all to think about ‘what would I do in that situation?’. That is true heroism”, Johnson tweeted over the weekend. He thanked the French doctors, police officers and others.
Mark Moogalian is taken for medical treatment after the train attack last Friday in northern France.
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“We’re just very proud, very proud of him and so happy that he’s okay”, said Alek’s mother, Karen.
