Eleven years after tackling an armed gunman aboard a high-speed train bound for Paris, three men with deep Sacramento-area roots are looking back on the split-second decision that made them international heroes. Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler helped subdue a gunman during the August 21, 2015 attack on Thalys train 9364, an ordeal that began with the trio's friendship forged years earlier in Fair Oaks classrooms and ended with them becoming symbols of civilian courage on two continents.
Their story is once again drawing attention as CBS News Sacramento marks the anniversary, with reporter Madisen Keavy detailing how the men recall the attack more than a decade later, according to CBS News Sacramento. The attacker, identified as Moroccan national Ayoub El Khazzani, boarded the train carrying an assault rifle, a handgun, a box cutter and nearly 300 rounds of ammunition, putting 554 passengers at risk before his primary weapon jammed, as reported by The Guardian. French-American passenger Mark Moogalian was shot in the neck before the Americans moved in to tackle the gunman.
Friendship Forged Long Before the Attack
Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler's bond long predates their moment of crisis on the tracks. The three attended Freedom Christian School in Fair Oaks together before Stone went on to Del Campo High School in Carmichael and Sadler enrolled at California State University, Sacramento, according to the Air Force Times. That shared history in the Sacramento region is part of what the men have credited with helping them navigate the sudden, overwhelming attention that followed the attack.
Within days of the incident, French President François Hollande awarded Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler the Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian honor, at a ceremony on August 24, 2015. U.S. military commendations followed, including a Purple Heart for Stone and a Soldier's Medal for Skarlatos, per the Air Force Medical Service. The recognition didn't stop at the Élysée Palace; back home, the City of Sacramento threw a Hometown Heroes parade along Capitol Mall on September 11, 2015, drawing thousands near the State Capitol, as reported by Voice of America.
A Brutal Turn Just Weeks After Coming Home
The celebration in Sacramento gave way to tragedy less than two months later. Spencer Stone suffered multiple life-threatening stab wounds during a fight outside a Midtown Sacramento venue on October 8, 2015, and underwent emergency open-heart surgery at UC Davis Medical Center, according to PBS News. Sacramento police confirmed at the time that the altercation was unrelated to terrorism.
The case eventually reached resolution in court. In March 2017, 29-year-old James Tran pleaded guilty to attempted murder for the stabbing, admitting he used a deadly weapon in the fight, and he was sentenced to nine years in state prison two months later, according to ABC10. The gunman from the train attack also faced judicial consequences: a special anti-terrorism court in Paris convicted El Khazzani of attempted terrorist murder in December 2020 and sentenced him to life in prison, while three accomplices received sentences ranging from seven to 27 years, per the South China Morning Post.
From Hollywood to French Citizenship
The men's story eventually reached a global audience beyond news coverage. Director Clint Eastwood cast Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler to portray themselves in the 2018 biographical drama The 15:17 to Paris, based on the trio's co-authored memoir, the Air Force Times reported. The unusual casting choice turned their real-life ordeal into a feature film watched far beyond Sacramento.
France formally cemented its bond with the three men on January 31, 2019, when they were granted dual French citizenship during a naturalization ceremony held in Sacramento and presided over by the Consul General of France in San Francisco, according to the Los Angeles Times. In the years since, their paths have diverged in public life; Alek Skarlatos, who served in the Oregon Army National Guard, ran twice as the Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Oregon's 4th Congressional District, in 2020 and 2022, per the U.S. Department of State.
Eleven years on, the men's account of that August afternoon remains rooted in the same friendship that began in Fair Oaks, a bond that carried them from a Sacramento classroom to a moment on a European train that neither they nor the 554 other passengers aboard are likely to forget.
