Oregon Army National Guard veterans who helped thwart a terrorist attack on a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015 say the manslaughter trial of New York Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny is forcing them to “step up.” This is a worrying warning for all those who consider themselves to be “human beings.”
Oregon congressman-elect Alec Skarlatos said he, along with two friends and another good Samaritan, disarmed and subdued Moroccan terrorist Ayoub el-Khazaani, who opened fire on the crowded Thalys train. He said he believes the country's self-defense laws are more lenient than those in the United States. empire state.
“Do you want people to be brave and try to do the right thing? Or not?” That means if he's convicted, a lot of people and blue states will be scared into action. “It will not happen,” he said.
The problem in blue states, he warned, is a clear double standard with politicized prosecutors picking winners and losers.
“People who live in Oregon, Washington, California, New York are worried that something like this could happen to them, especially if they think of themselves as stepping up. “I think so,” he says. he told FOX News Digital. “For example, our terrorist attack… happened on a continent where there were no guns. We couldn't carry them. We had to fight this guy with our bare hands.”
Skarlatos sees a two-tiered judicial system in Democratic strongholds. Penny remained at the scene and spoke with police, but was not arrested until 11 days later when the same Manhattan district attorney's office that prosecuted the controversial New York v. Trump case charged Penny with manslaughter.
“Hunter Biden will also be pardoned today,” Skarlatos said. “There's all sorts of double standards when it comes to how blue states and Democratic leadership enforce their laws.”
He also said he believed Mr. Penny acted with others in mind and intervened to stop an apparent threat before it got out of hand.
“If you look at his interrogation with the police after the fact, he would have thought that his actions were correct, that the police would take Neely into custody and that everything would be fine,” he said.
On August 21, 2015, Skarlatos and two childhood friends, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, were on a train bound for Paris when El Khazzani jumped out of the bathroom and opened fire.
The now-convicted terrorist was in possession of an AK-47 rifle, an automatic pistol, a box cutter knife, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
The rifle jammed and they took the gun away. By then, El Khazzani had shot and killed one passenger and seriously slashed Mark Moogarian, an American expatriate living in France who had first engaged the gunman and slashed Stone multiple times.
“When we managed to get him under control and bend him over something like a table on the train, he was still fighting to get away, so I just told him, 'Stop resisting. Stop resisting.’” And he didn’t. So I put the gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. And it turned out that the handgun was completely empty,” he said.
When Stone, who was about to lose his thumb, choked him, Skarlatos instead cracked his head open with the butt of his rifle.
The former Oregon National Guard sniper said he was initially afraid to tell French authorities.
“I actually asked the American FBI, who interviewed me the next morning, whether that was a problem for France,” he said. “And they said, no, this is mostly terrorism. , I told them about it.”
In 2015, the three childhood friends were awarded the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest award. Skarlatos was also awarded the Army Soldier's Medal at a ceremony at the Pentagon.
Stone later said his medical training helped save the life of the fourth passenger, Moogarian, and was awarded the Airman Medal and Purple Heart.
Upon their return, all three were invited to the White House.
In 2018, he played himself in Clint Eastwood's film “15:17 to Paris,'' which was based on his memoir.
Penny's case has attracted national attention since the 26-year-old military veteran was arrested on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in May 2023.
He put Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia and synthetic marijuana, in a headlock to stop a terror-inducing explosion inside a Manhattan subway car.
Neely had an active arrest warrant at the time and a history of violent assaults, and witnesses said they feared for their lives as Neely screamed that he had killed someone and was not afraid to go back to prison. .
Penny's defense argued that the restraint was a justified use of force and that it was not the only factor in Neely's death. Prosecutors have accused Mr. Penny of overreach.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
Mr. Skarlatos was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives last month.
He said that once he takes office, he will oppose restrictive gun laws and want to ensure people have the opportunity to protect themselves.
“The word on the street is that the Democrats are going to introduce a ton of gun control legislation. As a gun owner and someone who has survived in France, it's kind of my cause,” he said.
