Sacramento to Throw Parade for French Train 'Heroes'

The Californian capital Sacramento has announced it will be hosting a parade in honor of three young men lauded with thwarting possible carnage on a crowded French train. 

"Big news! We are throwing a parade for our 3 hometown heroes! Details and timing coming soon," Mayor Kevin Johnson tweeted Monday.

The three friends -- off-duty servicemen Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, plus student Anthony Sadler -- together with Briton Chris Norman are credited with overpowering a Moroccan gunman Friday on a packed train bound for Paris from Amsterdam.

"Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos risked their own lives to save the lives of complete strangers. That is true heroism," Johnson tweeted over the weekend. 

French President Francois Hollande bestowed his country's highest honor, the Legion of Honor, on the foursome Monday.

"I cannot be prouder that these young men come from the Sacramento region," he added, noting that the community was looking forward to giving them a heroes' welcome. 

Stone, 23, and Skarlatos, 22, are both originally from the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael. Sadler, 23, is a student at Sacramento State University.

U.S. military officials said Monday that Stone -- who suffered hand and eye injuries in the incident -- will be nominated for the Air Force's highest medal for non-combat bravery. 

The suspect, 25-year-old Ayoub El Khazzani, who boarded the high-speed train in Brussels armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a Luger automatic pistol, ammunition and a box-cutter, is being questioned by anti-terror investigators, though he insists he had only been seeking to rob passengers.