Initial reports that two U.S. Marines subdued a gunman who opened fire aboard a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris appear to have been in error. The New York Times is reporting that one was a National Guardsman, and the other is a member of the Air Force.
PARIS — The two American service members who tackled a suspected terrorist on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris rushed him even though he was fully armed, then grabbed him by the neck and beat him over the head with his own automatic rifle until he was unconscious, one of them said in television interviews here on Saturday.
The suspect entered the train car carrying an AK-47 and a handgun, and “I looked over at Spencer and said, ‘Let’s go,” said Alek Skarlatos, identified as an Oregon National Guardsman returning from Afghanistan. “And he jumped, I followed behind him by about three seconds. Spencer got the guy first, grabbed the guy by the neck, I grabbed the handgun,” said Mr. Skarlatos, referring to Spencer Stone, a friend and member of the Air Force. The Pentagon confirmed their identities.
Adam Nossiter's article has further details. French and American authorities are praising the quick actions by the two that prevented what could have been a massacre. No fatalities have been reported, but three people were wounded and Spencer was reported as being cut by some kind of blade wielded by the attacker, identified as "a 26-year-old man of Moroccan origin known to Spanish authorities as a terrorism suspect".
One of the salient aspects of this is that it was not government surveillance, security measures, or agents armed with firearms that averted a tragedy. It was two people with the awareness, the training, and the determination to act that made the critical difference - and the operation of chance factors that put them in the right place at the right time. It remains to be seen what lessons will be drawn from this event, but for now these two men deserve full praise for their heroism.
UPDATE: Numerous commenters have pointed to accounts in other publications which cite others as assisting in the effort to stop the gunman; the Times has updated its story with more details in a later version and video. Apparently a French passenger (unidentified in the Times article) was the first to attempt to stop the gunman. (It has been suggested he was severely wounded which would explain why little has been heard from him.) This is what alerted Skarlatos and Stone. They succeeded in taking the gunman down, and were joined by a friend traveling with them, American student Anthony Sadler, as well as Briton Chris Norman, and a train conductor who all aided in subduing him.
Mr. Stone, wounded and bleeding, kept the suspect in a chokehold. “Spencer Stone is a very strong guy,” Mr. Norman said. The suspect passed out. Mr. Norman busied himself binding him up with a tie.
Mr. Skarlatos, the AK-47 in hand, began to patrol the carriages, looking for other gunmen. He made a series of startling discoveries: The suspect’s guns had malfunctioned, and he had not had the competence to fix them.
“He had pulled the trigger on the AK. The primer was just faulty, so the gun didn’t go off, luckily,” Mr. Skarlatos said. “And he didn’t know how to fix it, which is also very lucky.” In addition, the gunman had not been able to load his own handgun: “There was no magazine in it, so he either dropped it accidentally or didn’t load it properly, so he was only able to get what appeared to be one shot off,” Mr. Skarlatos said.
Bleeding heavily, Mr. Stone went to the aid of a gunshot victim, Mr. Sadler said. “Even though he was injured, he went to help the other man who was injured,” he said. “Without his help, he would have died.”
Eventually I expect someone will put together a timeline of the attack and the response to it as the details are sorted out and confirmed. There is still much to be learned. For example, where did the gunman obtain his weapons, and how did he get them aboard the train? It also could have been far worse; the malfunctioning of the suspect's guns and his weapons incompetence were in retrospect a critical factor in how the attack unfolded. The further actions of Stone and Skarlatos after the attacker was subdued are also impressive. All in all, this is a story that continues to amaze.