Train assault heroes to get France’s highest honour

The three Americans and Briton who took down a heavily armed man on a passenger train in France last week were honored Monday.

Monday morning, French President François Hollande welcomed U.S. Airman First Class Spencer Stone; Alek Skarlatos, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard; and their friend Anthony Sadler; along with Chris Norman, a British consultant to the Élysée Palace. 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 gave us a lesson in courage, in will, and thus in hope”.

Stone said another man, who is French and whose name has not been disclosed, “deserves a lot of the credit” because he was the first one to try to stop the gunman, whom authorities have identified as suspected Islamist militant Ayoub el Khazzani, 26, of Morocco.

A lawyer representing El Khazzani had previously said her client was shocked and surprised “to the point of being amused” following his arrest. He tried to overpower him and the gun was then fired.

With those words, Hollande said, a “veritable carnage” was avoided. “I turned around and I saw he had an AK-47 and it looked like” the weapon “wasn’t working, and he was trying to charge his weapon, and Alek just hit on my shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go, ‘” Stone said.

“I heard a gunshot”, said fellow passenger at a news conference Saturday. “He was ready to fight to the end, so were we”.

Hollande spoke with them by phone and “thanked them for their exceptional courage and their efficiency to prevent a tragedy”, according to a statement from his office.

“Hiding or sitting back is not going to accomplish anything ad the gunman would have been successful if my friend Spencer would not have gotten up”, said Sadler.

“Three Americans and one Englishman … you risked your lives to defend an ideal, the ideal of liberty and freedom”, said Hollande.

Hollande made reference during his speech to Mark Moogalian, a French-American academic who was also involved in foiling the attack but remains hospitalized.

Stone, who was suffering from injuries to his head, neck and hand, still managed to help a man who had his throat cut. They were “worthy of a frontline officer”, Le Monde newspaper said in praise of the Americans’ rejection of “inaction” and “passivity”. Speaking as he left the Elysee, Norman said it was “a little bit hard to believe that it’s actually happened”.