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| Europe |
| US soldiers speak of the moment they stopped gunman and 'beat him until he was unconscious' |
| 2015-08-23 |
| [INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] A US soldier has spoken of the moment he and a childhood friend prevented a gunman from opening fire on a passenger train from Amsterdam to northern La Belle France. It wasn't precisely the Marines that landed, more a Zoomie, a Doggy, and some guy they knew. It added up to the same thing in the end: A pack, not a herd. Alek Skarlatos, on holiday in Europe with fellow serviceman Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, said he and his companions heard a gunshot and breaking glass while on their Thalys train at around 3.45pm on Friday. Gunshot and breaking glass == tipoff unless you're a CNN commentpotater ("But were you sure those sounds were associated with an attack? They could have been caused by something else...") "I saw a guy entering the carriage with an AK and a handgun, at that point I ducked down and my friend Spencer, next to me, ducked down and I just looked over at Spencer and said: 'Let's go'," Mr Skalatos told Sky News from his hotel room in Arras, northern La Belle France. "Let's roll." Next month is 14 years. The 22-year-old National Guardsman from Rosenburg, Oregan, and Mr Stone charged the unidentified 26-year-old man, believed to be of Moroccan origin, down the narrow carriage. [TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!] "Aaaiiieeee!" [TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!] Well, maybe a thundering herd. "Then I grabbed the AK (assault rifle), which was at his feet, and started muzzle thumping him in the head with it," Mr Skarlatos added. [WHACK!][WHACK!][WHACK!][THUMP!] Mr Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named of his friends' exploits: "Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a boxcutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious. The gunman never said a word." Just ate his knuckle sammitch in peace. It came as amateur video showing the aftermath of the struggle emerged. Why was the guy videoing when he could have been thumping? Another passenger helped the men tie up the assailant while Mr Skalatos -- who recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan -- disabled the gunman's weapons. "E-e-e-ew! You ever clean this thing?" "In the aftermath, we saw that a man's throat had been split and he was bleeding profusely," Mr Sadler said. [Collective chorus: "Oh, dear."] Airman Mr Stone, who was injured himself in the hand during the tussle, performed first aid on the unidentified passenger. "Hold this against the wound and don't talk!" "It hurts!" "I said don't talk!" "Okay! Okay!" Mr Sadler continued: "Spencer, who has some paramedics training, just clogged up his neck so he wouldn't die. This is all in the midst of Spencer bleeding profusely himself." "Try not to slip and fall in it. You don't even want to have a broken hip set." "It was just really heroic of him to do something like that." "Shucks, ma'am! 'Twarn't nuthin'!" Mr Skarlatos added: "We just did what we had to do. You either run away or fight. We chose to fight and got lucky and didn't die." Three disciplined men against one dipshit krazed killer? No contest. The attack has been condemned by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuv, who called it "an attack of barbaric violence", and expressed his "gratitude and admiration" for the men's actions. For a moment there I thought he meant the attack on the krazed killer. A White House spokesperson also praised the men's actions. "Yeah, yeah. Really." "The President expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including US service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker, " a statement said. "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." " 'May have,' mind you." The three were met off the train, which was travelling through Belgium at the time of the attack, along with around 500 other passengers at the next station in Arras by French authorities. "Ummm... What's that?" "It's a guillotine. It's not for you. It's for him!" "Can we watch?" "By all means!" Three people were maimed in the attack, including a French actor who is believed to have hurt himself as he sounded the alarm. Yeah. We saw the headline on CNN. Bit his tongue, did he? US authorities confirmed that an American citizen had been injured but that their wounds were not life-threatening. |
| Posted by:Fred |