Terrible news this morning that Airmen First Class Spencer Stone, the American soldier who helped stop a potential terrorist attack on a French train this summer, last night was stabbed several times in what seems like a bar fight in Sacramento, California.
“It is believed that the victim was out with a group of friends when a physical altercation led to the victim being stabbed multiple times in his upper body,” the public information officer for the Sacramento Police Department said in a statement to KXTV. “Detectives were called to the scene to assist with the investigation and the victim is currently being treated for what appears to be non-life threatening injuries.”
What a crazy thing: On Sunday night we met Spencer Stone at the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies.” He’d been in New York for another event and had come at the invitation of the Army liaison to the film. A lovely young guy, he also seemed pretty serious. We talked about how he and his buddies intervened this summer on a Euro train to France and prevented a crisis. He and his friends became international heroes.
This isn’t the first odd thing to happen to one of these guys. On Sunday, Stone told us how Alek Skarlatos was supposed to have started classes at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, site of last week’s mass shooting. But Skarlatos missed class because he was in Los Angeles taping “Dancing with the Stars.” (And think about that– one minute you’re on a train, the next you’re getting an award from the US and French presidents, and then you’re on “Dancing with the Stars.” You couldn’t make it up.)
Stone was such a nice guy. I asked him why he thought he and his pals jumped into action, and if he thought others would do the same in the same situation? He said that adrenaline kicked in, and they knew they had no choice. They never stopped to think about themselves. Stone, by the way, was in formal military dress, and acting like a good soldier. He’d been very impressed with “Bridge of Spies.”
Here’s hoping he recovers quickly, and that nothing else bad happens to these young men.
