.

A potentially disastrous attack on a high-speed train was averted yesterday by the quick responses of three Americans, including two off duty servicemen, and a Brit who subdued a gunman armed with an automatic rifle and several hundred rounds of ammunition. The American heroes, Airman First Class, Spencer Stone (USAF), Alek Skarlatos, a specialist in the Oregon Army National Guard and their friend Anthony Sadler were traveling on the Thalys train between Amsterdam and Paris when the incident took place.

Shortly after entering France, the gunman, reported to be a 26-year-old Moroccan native tentatively identified as Sliman Hamzi opened fire [one shot was fired] but then the weapon apparently misfired and jammed [the weapon was operating properly, but the magazine was not properly loaded because the gunman was an untrained and unprepared dufus, therefore the gun interrupted firing action as it was designed to do].. Sadler described what happened next.

“As he was cocking it to shoot it, Alek just yells, ‘Spencer, go!’ And Spencer runs down the aisle. Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a box cutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious.”

    The Americans were joined in subduing the gunman by British businessman, Chris Norman.

French Interior Minister, Bernard Cazaneuve, who described the attack as [one] of barbaric violence, spoke about what is known of the gunman.

    “If the identity he has declared is confirmed, he is a 26-year-old man of Moroccan nationality identified by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014 because of his connections to the radical Islamist movement.”

Hamzi has been reported to have spent time recently in Syria. While the attack has not been officially deemed an act of terrorism, a senior European counter terrorism official said it was suspected. Cazaneuve said the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office in Paris will investigate.

At least one Frenchman, not involved in the capture is reported to have been shot, his wounds are not life threatening. American Spencer Stone was injured in the scuffle by the attackers box cutter. In an interview later, Chris Norman said,

    “The guy actually came up, he pulled out a cutter, started cutting Spencer. He cut Spencer behind the neck, he nearly cut his thumb off. We eventually got him under control.”

Stone remains hospitalized due to his injuries which require surgery.

Friday night, a White House spokesman reflected on the news.

    “Echoing the statements of French authorities, the President expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including U.S. service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker.

    “While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy. We will remain in close contact with French authorities as the investigation proceeds.”


France is still on edge since the attack on the offices of satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo in January. But this attack could have been even worse, rather than focusing on a specific target group, this gunman prepared to attack random civilians on a train that was packed with hundreds of them and brought a supply of ammunition [6-80 round mag clips of AK47 ammo, or 480 assault rifle bullets] that was ample to obliterate them all [one bullet could kill perhaps 4 people, and anyone who would have jumped off the high speed train would have died from the fall]. Only the selfless action of a few young heroes kept him from that goal.

HT:   NPR        Featured Image: Flickr

Please take a moment and Like Reverb Press
Like
   
206,622 people like this. Sign Up to see what your friends like.


.
.
.

There is talk of the French authorities considering whether these 3 Americans should be prosecuted for beating up a Moroccan national on a public train...

To their CREDIT, when the train came to a stop, 3 very large French guards extricated the battered suspect in his TIED-UP position, carrying him off the train with his elbows tied to his ankles behind his back (i.e., very humiliating, which is a GOOD thing).

I want to see a photo.


.

.

Two different sources say the Moroccan gunman is sticking to his story that he had no intention of perpetrating a terrorist act, but that he was just homeless and hungry, so he was going to rob a passenger on the train so he could get something to eat.  

And that's worth publishing?

(If he had merely sold his AK-47 and ammo, he could have had food for a month.)

A friend told me the Americans should have killed him.  I replied that if they had, they would now be in a French jail for murder.

The French investigation is apparently having a hard time dealing with the fact that no mass killing took place, and that means (to them) that the gunman didn't really do anything so terrible (apparently they've forgotten already about the passenger who was shot and could easily have been killed if the bullet had struck him a few inches more to the left, for example), compared to the aggressive assault the 3 Americans committed.  

Could this have been the case if it had happened in America?

When the single shot was fired, train attendants nearby scattered, immediately running AWAY from the gunman, since they had not been trained in how to handle any such emergency.  Fortunately for the hundreds of passengers on board, there were 3 astute and prepared Americans on hand who knew what to do and risked their lives to do the right thing.  

We should all be so fortunate.  These fine gentlemen deserve a medal.  But since they were not on active duty, that ain't gonna happen.

If Spencer Stone had been on duty, he would be eligible for a Purple Heart, wounded in battle.

Airman First Class Spencer Stone (USAF), Alek Skarlatos, Specialist in the Oregon Army National Guard and their friend Anthony Sadler should be names we remember for a very long time.  

.

There's going to be a lot more to this story...................

.

Something bothers me about this story. It's odd, timing-wise...