Childhood Friends Hailed As Heroes After Stopping France Train Attack Suspect
CARMICHAEL (CBS13) – Everett Stone says his brother Spencer Stone is still recovering. "Proud" doesn't even being to describe how he feels, he says, but he expects nothing less of him.
"He pretty much sums up the definition of being a warrior," Everett said.
Everett is Spencer big brother; both are graduates of Del Campo High School in Fair Oaks. But Everett says his little brother is now his hero for risking his own life to take down a suspected terrorist on a train to Paris.
"He shouldn't even be alive at all. He saved every single person's life on that train," Everett said.
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Cell phone video shows Spencer bleeding heavily after the attacker stabbed him in the back with a box cutter, slashed his finger and hit him over the head with an assault rifle.
Everett says Spencer – who was just released from a Paris hospital – is a medic in the U.S. Air Force and was vacationing in Europe with his childhood friends from the Sacramento area before the three turned into global heroes.
Spencer's neighbor, Alek Skarlato, is a National Guardsman just back from Afghanistan. Skarlato says they heard the gunman load his weapon in the bathroom.
"I looked back and saw a guy with an AK loading the cabin," Skarlato said, speaking to CNN.
When he got out, Skarlato yelled those two now-famous words: "Let's go."
"I said basically 'let's go,' and he went," Skarlato said. "Spencer ran a good ten meters to get to the guy and we didn't know that his gun wasn't working, Spencer just ran anyway."
Skarlato says Spencer grabbed the gunman's neck. That's when Skarlato and Anthony Sadler – a Sacramento State University student – snatched the gun, hog-tied the man and beat him unconscious.
But the friends say it's Spencer who deserves the credit not only for going in first, but for saving the life of a man shot in the neck.
"Even after being injured himself he went to go help the other man who was bleeding also. Without his help, he would have died from all the blood he was losing," Sadler said, speaking to CNN.
For Spencer's brother, the story is even more chilling given what he knows about his brother. He recalls the conversation he had with him after 9-11 when Spencer told him what he'd do if he ever came face to face with a terrorist.
"We basically just discussed, you know, a lot would sit back, and we weren't just going to sit down and take it. He did exactly what he said he would do," Everett said.
Everett says his brother Spencer expects to receive an award from the French government Monday for what he did on that train – and his family is trying to work out a trip to France.
"He should be dead, and by the grace of God, he's alive."
--Everett Stone, Spencer Stone's brother
Investigators have confirmed the suspect is 26-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El-Kahzzani. He allegedly belonged to the radical Islamist movement and was on a French security watch list.
Sadler's parents Tony and Maria sat down with CBS13 Friday and talked about the how they had received the call from their son describing what happened.
"Disbelief and relief. Disbelief that it had occurred and relief that our son did not lose his life and that his friend was not seriously injured," Tony said.
Tony also said that his son would be headed home after an interview with the French police and an anti-terror agency.
The three men are receiving a long list of accolades from all across the country. President Barack Obama called the three to congratulate them for their heroic acts, while Secretary of Defense Ash Carter released a statement thanking them and all those who helped.
"I want to thank the brave individuals who stepped forward to prevent an even greater tragedy from taking place aboard that train," Carter wrote.
And Sacramento State president Robert S. Nelsen said Saturday that the school is proud to have Anthony as a student.
"We are proud to say Anthony Sadler is a member of the hornet family. His efforts, along with those of his childhood friends, to save the train passengers in France from a terrorist attack are nothing short of heroic," Nelsen wrote.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson tweeted that the community is looking forward to giving the men a hero's welcome when they come home.
Phil Serna, chairman of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, said Saturday that no concrete plans for a celebration are in store yet, but may be down the road.
"I think there's a lot of things that are going to happen for these great young men given their acts of heroism," Serna said.
