The Pittsburg native and his friends disarmed the gunman, he said.
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It has also been revealed that the attacker pleaded with the group who overpowered him to “Give me back my gun”.
Cazeneuve said that when a French passenger tried to enter a toilet on the train, he encountered the gunman and tried, but failed to overpower him. “Give me back my gun!’ But we just carried on beating him up and immobilized him and that was it”, Spencer said. Seeing his son’s face on FaceTime and hearing his voice has put his mind at ease. “So, let’s go. I’d rather die being active”.
Stone suffered a number of cuts, including one that almost severed his thumb.
Reporter: Long-time neighbors, skarlatos and stone’s mothers saying they were not surprised. “We heard the word go, and everyone just got up”.
Being a Sacramento State student, school president Robert S. Nelsen commended Sadler’s heroism. “That’s for sure”, Skarlatos said in an interview shown on French television. He is studying at the local community college and hopes for a career in law enforcement, said his stepmother Karen Skarlatos.
“But, of course, I’m very proud of him and the other two boys”, Tony Sadler said.
The trio were on their way to Paris from Amsterdam when the incident on the train occurred.
Witnesses say he opened fire, injuring a man before being wrestled to the floor by three American passengers and tied up, until the train stopped in the northern French city of Arras where he was taken into police custody. El Khazzani’s identity was established through DNA analysis and matches the DNA records Spanish authorities had on file, according to French media.
“It is absolutely in his character”, said Ms Eskel between sobs. The official, linked to Spain’s anti-terrorism unit, said the individual lived in Spain until 2014, then moved to France, travelled to Syria, and then returned to France. While bleeding, Stone went to help the gunshot victim. Suspects on the list are noted for their “links with terrorist organizations”, but not all are under 24-hour surveillance.
“Airman Stone and Specialist Alex Skarlatos are two reasons why – on duty and off – ours is the finest fighting force the world has ever known”, US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, speaking in Arras in northern France where the suspect was detained, said one of the American passengers was hospitalized with serious wounds.
“Bottom line is, being a family of faith, we firmly believe that God kept him safe amidst a unsafe situation and used him and his friends to potentially save many lives”. “I do not know how many magazines he had”. Belgium also announced it was imposing stricter security on trains. In June, a lone attacker claiming allegiance to Islamic radicals beheaded his employer and set off an explosion at an American-owned factory in France, raising concerns about other scattered, hard-to-predict attacks.
Three American men have been recognised by the French government for their immediate action that stopped an alleged radical Islamist to conduct a shootout inside the Thalys service train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday. “The president expressed his gratitude to these three individuals for their heroic actions forestalling an even greater tragedy”.
British businessman Chris Norman also joined in the fray.
“We avoided the worst, but the situation was tough, for them and for everyone”, he said.
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Special correspondent Willsher reported from Paris and Times staff writers Megerian from Sacramento and Torres from Los Angeles.
