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PARIS (AP) — One among three Individuals acclaimed as heroes for tackling an alleged Islamic State gunman aboard a Paris-bound prepare testified on the man’s trial Friday that he tried to kill him.
Alek Skarlatos informed the Paris courtroom that he yanked a pistol from the attacker’s hand, turned it on him and pulled the set off however that the gun didn’t hearth.
“I used to be truthfully making an attempt my greatest to kill or restrain him,” Skarlatos mentioned.
The assault suspect, Ayoub El Khazzani, faces a most sentence of life in jail if he’s convicted of tried terrorist homicide. The 31-year-old Moroccan is being tried with three suspected accomplices.
The recollections in courtroom this week from passengers who disarmed the attacker on the prepare from Amsterdam have highlighted the split-second choices that foiled what might have develop into a mass slaughter. The passengers’ heroics on Aug. 21, 2015 impressed Clint Eastwood to direct a Hollywood film reenacting the dramatic occasions: “The 15:17 to Paris.”
Skarlatos and two different longtime buddies have been vacationing collectively. They grew up collectively in California. One of many buddies, Spencer Stone, managed to pin down the attacker in a stranglehold. Skarlatos moved in, too, joined by one other passenger as soon as the gunman was on the bottom.
He “was surprisingly tough to regulate,” Skarlatos testified.
With the attacker beneath management, the prepare rerouted to Arras, in northern France, the place El Khazzani was arrested.
Authorities say El Khazzani boarded the prepare in Brussels armed with the Kalashnikov, 9 clips with 30 rounds every, an automated pistol and a cutter.
As soon as aboard the prepare, El Khazzani lingered in a restroom between automobiles, the place two different passengers confronted him, after which emerged bare-chested along with his weapons.
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