John Bacon, USA TODAY 3:15 p.m. EDT August 23, 2015
Stone said he was stabbed in the neck and thumb, which had to be reattached. He appeared at the news conference with his left arm in a sling.
French authorities contend that Ayoub El-Khazzani, 26, is an Islamic extremist. El-Khazzani’s lawyer, Sophie David, said on French TV that her client claims he was just homeless and hungry and wanted to rob the train and then jump out a window.
Sadler sounded skeptical when asked if it might have been a robbery and not terrorism. He noted that El-Khazzani was armed with eight magazines of bullets.
"It doesn't take eight magazines to rob a train," Sadler said.
Skarlatos said he first heard what sounded like a gunshot, then glass breaking before the gunman starting dashing through the car with a rifle. The men said he tried to shoot, but the gun failed to fire. Stone said had been sleeping soundly in his seat.
"Alek hit me on the shoulder and said, 'Let's go,'" Stone said.
Stone said he ran down the aisle and tackled El-Khazzani. Skarlatos followed, wrestling the rifle away. Stone said El-Khazzani then pulled out a handgun, which Skarlatos also seized. El-Khazzani then began slashing with a box cutter. Stone was wounded before the three Americans finally subdued El-Khazzani, with Briton Chris Norman helping to tie him up.
Norman, speaking to the media earlier, said his initial response to the attack was "to sit down and hide." He said he rallied when he heard American voices and saw them begin their assault.
“In the beginning it was mostly gut instinct, survival,” Skarlatos said. “Our training kicked in after the struggle.”
Stone said he aided a passenger whose neck was "squirting" blood.
"I put my fingers in the hole and it worked" until paramedics arrived, he said.
Stone thanked the French people for their warm reception, and medical personnel for their help with his injuries. He also thanked his friends and others on the train who came to their assistance during the attack.
"If it wasn't for them, I'd be dead," Stone said.
Sadler said the men were only in that train car, which was first class, because the Wi-Fi had been shaky in the car they initially sat. They had bought first-class tickets, so they decided to hunt down their seats.
Not much later, El-Khazzani entered their lives.
"He never said a word," Sadler said, adding that el-Khazzani appeared to try and shoot the rifle "so it was either do something or die."
Sadler said he was the last of the three Americans to join the fray.
"I saw Spencer get up, I saw Alek get up," Sadler said. "They are my friends and I couldn't let them go alone."
Skarlatos said El-Khazzani appeared to have little or no firearms training.
"But if he got lucky... and went through all those magazines, we probably wouldn't be here today."
The three Americans said they were overwhelmed by the warm reception they have received from the French people, the media and the world.
"It feels unreal, like a dream," Stone said.
Sadler said the takeaway from the confrontation: In times of crisis "do something. ... Don't just stand by and watch."
French President Francois Hollande thanked the men for their bravery. President Obama and Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to France, also expressed gratitude.
“The word ‘hero’ has never been more appropriate,” Hartley said Sunday. “They are truly heroes. When most of us would run away, Spencer, Alek and Anthony ran into the line of fire, saying ‘Let’s go.’ Those words changed the fate of many.”
