US police arrest suspect in stabbing of French train hero

This photo released by the Sacramento Police Department shows an undated driver’s license photo of James Tran, who was arrested, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, for the October stabbing of Spencer Stone, in Sacramento, Calif. Tran was taken into custody and booked on suspicion of attempted homicide. Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone was one of three Americans hailed as a hero for helping to thwart a European terror attack. Sacramento Police Department via AP

LOS ANGELES, United States—A man has been arrested in connection with the stabbing of one of three Americans who helped thwart a heavily armed attacker on a Paris-bound train, California police said Wednesday.

READ: Police trying to identify suspects in stabbing of train hero

Spencer Stone was stabbed three times in the upper torso on October 8 as he was leaving a bar in Sacramento, the US state’s capital. He underwent two hours of surgery.

The Sacramento Police Department tweeted that it had “arrested 28-year-old James Tran for the attempted murder of United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Spencer Stone.”

“During the course of the investigation, detectives interviewed a number of witnesses and received information from the community that ultimately led to the identification of suspect Tran,” it said.

READ: Obama calls trio who thwarted train attack ‘best of America’

Stone and two of his friends—Army National Guard Specialist Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler, a civilian—helped foil an attack in August on a packed train headed to Paris.

They have since been hailed as heroes, both in the United States and in France, where they were awarded the Legion of Honor, the country’s highest decoration.

Stone suffered deep slash wounds as he helped to overpower a heavily-armed gunman, Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, on August 21.

Armed with a pistol, an assault rifle and 270 rounds of ammunition, Khazzani is accused of seeking to massacre passengers on the Amsterdam-Paris train.