Americans, Briton awarded medals for stopping train attack

REUTERS/Michel EulerFrench President Francois Hollande (L) awards U.S. Airman First Class Spencer Stone (C) with the Legion d’Honneur (the Legion of Honour) medal as U.S. National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos applauds during a ceremony at the Elysée Palace in Paris, France, August 24, 2015.

Fellow friend Anthony Sadler and British passenger Chris Norman pinned the attacker down and stripped him of his weapons.

“We can not be afraid as long as we have individuals like this in our midst”, Hollande said.

The 26-year-old Moroccan suspect, identified by French media as Ayoub El-Khazzani, was on the terror watch list of three countries, including France. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.

Spanish law enforcement told their French counterparts in March 2014 that El-Khazzani had a “relationship with radical Islam”, the Spanish El Pais newspaper reported. Stone held that position until paramedics arrived, he said. In a news conference he said, “I am just a college student, it’s my previous year in college”.

And then, Stone sees an injured passenger bleeding from the neck and, despite his own injuries, he helps them out.

Mr Stone said: “He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end”.

IT consultant Chris Norman, 62, received the Legion d’honneur from French President Francois Hollande, alongside three Americans, in Paris.

Asked about the intentions of the gunman, who in custody has denied wanting to wage an attack and said he had merely wanted to rob passengers, Sadler said: “It doesn’t take eight magazines to rob a train”.

Aleksander Skarlatos, a member of the Oregon National Guard who had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan, will receive the Soldier’s Medal “for extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty“, the US Army said Tuesday. “The guy had a lot of ammo”, Skarlatos said.

“He said he found it in the park which is just next to the Midi Station in Brussels, where he often sleeps with other homeless people…He says that the Kalashnikov didn’t work and he was brought under control immediately without a single shot being fired”, he said.

For Sadler, “hiding or sitting back” was never going to accomplish anything.

Which got me thinking – could I really just go sprinting at a crazed gunman?

Armed with an arsenal of weapons and apparently determined, he presented a formidable challenge to the vacationing friends who snapped into action out of what Skarlatos said was “gut instinct“. “At that time, it was either do something or die”.