Train hero Alek Skarlatos on Daniel Penny trial: 'This could happen to you'

EXCLUSIVE: The Oregon Army National Guard veteran who helped thwart a terror attack on a train from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015 is warning that New York Marine veteran Daniel Penny's manslaughter trial is concerning to all those who thinks of themselves as "someone who would step up."

Oregon House Rep.-elect Alek Skarlatos, who along with two friends and another good Samaritan disarmed and subdued the Moroccan terrorist Ayoub El Khazzani when he opened fire on a packed Thalys train, said he believes French self-defense law is more accommodating than in the Empire State.

"Do you want people to step up and try to do the right thing or not? I mean, if he, God forbid, is convicted, it's going to frighten a lot of people and blue states into inaction," he said.

The problem with blue states, he warned, is an apparent double standard where politicized prosecutors pick and choose winners and losers.

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"I think if you live in Oregon, Washington, California and New York, you are kind of concerned that something like this could happen to you, especially if you're someone who thinks of themself as someone who would step up," he told Fox News Digital. "In our terrorist attack, for instance… it happened on a gun-free continent. I wasn't able to carry. We had to fight this guy by hand."

Skarlatos sees a two-tiered justice system in Democratic strongholds. Penny remained at the scene, spoke with police and was not arrested until 11 days later, when the same Manhattan District Attorney's Office that prosecuted the controversial NY v. Trump case indicted Penny on manslaughter charges.

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No one deserves to die because they're having a mental health episode, but at the same time, no one should have to put up with a drug-addicted schizophrenic person threatening their lives.

— Oregon House Rep.-elect Alek Skarlatos

"Hunter Biden is being pardoned today as well," Skarlatos said. "There's all sorts of double standards when it comes to how blue states and Democrat leadership enforce the law."

He also said he believes Penny acted with others in mind, stepping in to stop an apparent threat before it got out of hand.

"If you watched his interview with police after the fact, he thought that he did the right thing and the police had Neely in custody and everything was going to be fine," he said.

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Skarlatos and two childhood friends, Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler were on board a Paris-bound train on Aug. 21, 2015, when El Khazzani jumped out of the bathroom and opened fire.

The now-convicted terrorist had an AK-47 rifle, an automatic pistol, a box cutter and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The rifle jammed and they wrestled the guns away. By then, El Khazzani had shot one passenger, seriously slashed Mark Moogalian, an American ex-pat who was living in France and was first to engage the gunman, and cut Stone multiple times. 

"When we kind of got control of him and had him bent over kind of a table in the train car, he was still fighting to get away, and so I just told him, ‘Stop resisting, stop resisting.’ And he didn't. So I put the handgun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. And the handgun turned out to be completely empty," he said.

Skarlatos cracked him in the head with the butt of the rifle instead, as Stone, who nearly lost his thumb, choked him out.

The former Oregon National Guard sniper said he was afraid to tell French authorities at first.

"I actually asked the American FBI, who interviewed us the next morning, if it was something that the French would have a problem with," he said. "And they said, no, pretty much it's terrorism. They don't care. You can do whatever you want to terrorists in France. And so, when the French federal police interviewed me later that same day, I told them about that."

The three childhood friends received the French Legion of Honor, France's highest award, in 2015. Skarlatos was also given the Army's Soldier's Medal in a ceremony at the Pentagon. Stone, who said later his medical training helped save the life of the fourth passenger who stepped in, Moogalian, received the Airman's Medal and Purple Heart. 

All three were invited to the White House when they returned home. They later played themselves in the Clint Eastwood-directed movie based on their memoir, "The 15:17 to Paris" in 2018.

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Penny's case has received national attention since the 26-year-old veteran's arrest on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges in May 2023.

He placed Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia and synthetic marijuana in his system, in a headlock to stop a fear-inducing outburst on a Manhattan subway car.

Neely had an active arrest warrant at the time, a history of violent attacks, and witnesses testified that they feared for their lives as Neely screamed about killing people and not being afraid to go back to jail.

Penny's defense has argued that the restraint was a justified use of force and that it was not the sole factor in Neely's death. Prosecutors accuse Penny of taking the move too far.

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He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.

Skarlatos was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives last month. Once he takes office, he said, he hopes to oppose restrictive gun control measures and ensure citizens have a chance to defend themselves.

"Word on the street is the Democrats are going to be bringing a lot of anti-gun bills, which is kind of my pet cause, so to speak, being a gun owner and surviving what we survived in France," he said. 

Fox News' Ashley Papa and Stephen Sorace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.