ALEK SKARLATOS WENT FROM RECEIVING A HEROIC MEDAL OF HONOUR IN 2015

Transcription

1 ALEK SKARLATOS WENT FROM RECEIVING A HEROIC MEDAL OF HONOUR IN 2015 TO PLAYING HIMSELF IN CLINT EASTWOOD'S "THE 15:17 TO PARIS" HOLLYWOOD MOVIE 1/6

2 IN 2018 HEROISM ON AUGUST 21, 2015 When Emanuel Skarlatos, a 67 year old Greek immigrant who came to the U.S. at the age of four, picked up the phone on a Friday night in Oregon, on the night of August 21, 2015, it was his son Alek, 23 at the time, calling from a small town in northern France with a wild story about being onboard a high-speed train heading to Paris with a terrorist. 2/6

3 Greek Immigrant Father, Emanuel Skarlatos and his sons Solon, Peter, and Alek Skarlatos. Little did Skarlatos know that his son and two childhood friends, who are "so close they are basically brothers," had in fact foiled a terrorist attack on the train by a 26-year-old Moroccan and radical Islamist identified as Ayoub El Qahzzani. The radical islamist was known to at least three European intelligence agencies and the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre said is probably allied with ISIS. The three young Americans and a British passenger acted on their own as the train crew 3/6

4 reportedly locked themselves away, ignoring the terrified cries for help from passengers on the Friday evening train from Amsterdam to Paris. French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade told Paris Match that the train agents used a special key to barricade themselves in one of the train cars, leaving passengers to fend for themselves. Anglade was so furious that he gave a second interview to Le Figaro Saturday saying he and his fellow passengers were "totally abandoned" by the train crew while the Americans tackled the shooter. Alek, 23 at the time, a National Guardsman who just returned from deployment in Afghanistan last month, told his astonished dad that he and his childhood friend, U.S. Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone, with the help of friend Anthony Sadler, had taken down a terrorist wielding a Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun, a boxcutter and a backpack full of ammo on the train. Incredible video footage of the incident, apparently taken from Sadler's phone, shows the suspect hogtied on his stomach, moaning, along with Stone's bloody head, knifed in the attack. The windows around them are blood-stained. 4/6

5 "I got the facts about what happened from Alek," Skarlatos told the Daily Beast. "They're snoozing on the train and they hear someone reloading an AK-47. They made a split-second decision to bumrush him. Spencer went first because he's the biggest guy and only one person could fit down the aisle at a time. He tackled the guy and Alek jumped him second. The guy took out a boxcutter and began slicing Spencer. Alek grabbed his Kalashnikov and beat him unconscious with the butt end of it. Then their other friend Anthony helped hogtie the guy up and Alek went through the train with the AK-47 checking for other terrorists." - Greek Immigrant Dad, Emanuel Skarlatos on his heroic son Alek Skarlatos CLINT EASTWOOD'S MOVIE "THE 15:17 TO PARIS" 5/6

6 Alek Skarlatos in"the 15:17 towill Paris" in Theatres on Feb, 9, 2018 The Greek-American 15:17 to Paris" plays along himself with hero,us Alek AirSkarlatos, Force friends play Spencer himself Stone in Clint and Eastwood's Anthony Sadler. Movie "The SEE "THE REAL HEROES. 15:17 TO PARIS" MOVIE TRAILER STARRING ALEK SKARLATOS AND THE 6/6