Here's how 2 U.S. servicemen took down the train gunman

Paris train
(Image credit: Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP/Getty Images)

Two U.S. servicemen earned praise from President Obama after they worked to subdue a gunman on a train to Paris with the help of their American friend and a British man living in France.

When the suspect, reportedly 26 with ties to radical Islam, entered the train with an AK-47 and a handgun, Airman First Class Spencer Stone immediately ran over and grabbed him by the neck. Then Stone's friend, Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, grabbed the suspect's handgun. They beat him over the head with his own rifle until he was unconscious, The New York Times reports, based on Parisian TV interviews Saturday.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.