Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani was on the train with an AK-47, a Lugar pistol, a box cutter and several hundred rounds of ammunition. Authorities say they found the suspect’s phone in a bag left in the train. Another man who tried to stop him – a French-American named Mark Moogalian – is in hospital with a gunshot wound.
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Stone, along with childhood friends Aleksander Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, was recently honored by French President François Hollande with the French Legion of Honour for subduing an armed gunman when he entered their train carrying an assault rifle, a handgun and a box cutter.
“And believe it or not, that is what Airman Stone’s friends nicknamed him during Air Force technical training”.
With the formal inquiry opened, investigating magistrates are expected to file numerous preliminary charges against El-Khazzani, including multiple counts of attempted murder in connection with terrorism, possession of weapons in connection with terrorism and participation in a terrorist conspiracy. “Their fearlessness, courage and selflessness should inspire all of us, and, thanks to them, no one died on that high speed European train on Friday“. After five to seven months in 2014 in France, he lived in Brussels, Cologne and Vienna.
That said, the Pentagon is awaiting the French law enforcement investigation, and if it officially deems the incident a terror-related event, Air Force officials will examine the precedent established in the 2009 Fort Hood attack by Nidal Hasan, “to look at whether we can award the Purple Heart as well”, General Welsh said.
Molins said Khazzani went to Istanbul from Berlin on May 10 before returning from Antakya in southern Turkey to Albania on June 4, adding that he may have travelled to Syria.
A statement from the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said no-one had been detained but “some objects” had been seized for further examination. He says Stone is being treated for a laceration to his thumb, for which a full recovery is expected with ongoing therapy, as well as a “non-critical” eye injury and more minor wounds.
“This is a not a combat action, so it doesn’t qualify as we see it”, he said.
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“We will try and determine where he got these weapons, where he has been in Europe, anybody who has worked with him and his source of financing”, Molins said.
