People caught in terrorist incidents should act decisively to take down their attacker, said one of three Americans who disabled a gunman at the weekend.
Anthony Sadler and two off-duty servicemen thwarted a gunman, believed to be a 25-year-old Moroccan, on a high-speed Amsterdam-to-Paris service on Friday night. Sitting and hiding in these situations was not an option, said Sadler.
“I want the lesson to be that in times of crisis, do something,” he told a press conference alongside the other Americans, airman Spencer Stone and National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos.
“Hiding or sitting back is not going to accomplish anything. The gunman would have been successful if my friend hadn’t got up. Don’t just stand by and watch.”
The other men said they were probably saved by the fact that the gunman’s Kalashnikov appeared to have jammed. “Alek said, ‘Let’s go’ and we tackled him,” said Stone. “Alek took the gun out of his hand. I put him in a chokehold. He pulled out a handgun. Alek took that. He took out a boxcutter. We let go and started punching him.”
Stone also revealed that he required medics to stitch his thumb back on to his hand after the confrontation. “He seemed like he was ready to fight to the end. So were we.”
