SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Relatives of the three Americans who tackled and disarmed a gunman on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris say they are proud of the men and relieved they weren’t killed during those chaotic moments.

Tony Sadler said his son, Anthony Sadler, called him to describe what happened and the recognition he is receiving. He said he was first stunned and then relieved his 23-year-old son was not hurt or killed.

A photo taken early Saturday and obtained from the Facebook webpage of the mayor of Arras, France, Fredric Leturque, shows three of the four passengers who subdued a gunman on a train. Left to right are Anthony Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, Alek Skarlatos, a U.S. National Guardsman from Roseburg, Ore., and Briton Chris Norman. A fourth man, American Air Force serviceman Spencer Stone, was being treated for a hand wound suffered while tackling the gunman. Arras City Hall via AP

Airman First Class Spencer Stone, of the 65th Air Base Group, Lajes Air Base, Azores, Portugal. U.S. Air Force via AP

“I had thought that this trip, you know, going abroad and traveling for a few weeks would broaden his world view, but never did I suspect he would encounter an experience like this,” Sadler told Sacramento television station KCRA.

He said his son, a senior at Sacramento State University, had planned to travel in Europe with his college friends through the end of August.

“He leaves here a young man on an excursion to broaden his world view and to have fun with his buddies, and he comes back France’s national hero,” Sadler said.

“He might even meet the president of France before he leaves, so I’m still wrapping my head around that,” he said, laughing.

Anthony Sadler and two Sacramento-area friends, Spencer Stone, 23, and Alek Skarlatos, 22, helped subdue Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man with ties to radical Islam who was carrying a handgun and an assault weapon Friday.

The gunman slashed Stone, 23, several times with a box cutter. His mother, Joyce Eskel, said her son called her from a hospital and told her the gunman also tried to shoot him twice but the weapon didn’t work.

“I’m just crying because I could’ve lost my son so easily,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“He’s always been a hero to me. Now he’s an actual hero. He deserves it. He put his life on the line. They all did, and I’m just very, very proud of him. So proud,” she said.

Here are profiles of the three Americans by The Washington Post:

Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old specialist with the Oregon Army National Guard from Roseburg, Oregon, had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan before embarking on a European vacation. Skarlotos, a gun owner and outdoorsman, told reporters he wrestled an automatic weapon away from the suspected shooter and then used the gun to beat the man unconscious. Family members told reporters that Skarlatos wants to become a police officer.

Spencer Stone, an airman first class with the U.S. Air Force from Carmichael, California, is credited with tackling the suspected gunman before attending to a wounded passenger who was bleeding profusely. Stone, who practices martial arts, according to his Facebook page, sustained severe cuts on his hand and neck and has been released from a French hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Authorities say his bold decision to act may have saved hundred of lives.

Anthony Sadler, a senior at California State University at Sacramento, was making his first visit to Europe when he helped his two childhood friends take down and subdue the suspected gunman. Family members described him as an athlete and a “quick decision-maker” who goes out of his way to help others. “He loves his friends and would never stand and watch his friends engage a gunman and put themselves at risk and not play a role in helping,” Tony Sadler, Anthony’s father, told The Washington Post. “That would never happen.”

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