French train hero Spencer Stone stabbed in Sacramento



less U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone (center) is congratulated by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (left) and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva during an awards ceremony for Stone and two other men who helped stop a gunman on a Paris-bound train last month at the Pentagon September 17, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia. Stone received the Airman's Medal and the Purple Heart medal, Army Specialist Alek Skarlatos received the Soldier's Medal and Anthony Sadler received the Defense Department Medal for Valor. The three men helped overpower gunman Ayoub El-Khazzani, 25, after he opened fire on a Thalys train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on August 21. U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone (center) is congratulated by U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (left) and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva during an awards ceremony ... more Photo: Chip Somodevilla Photo: Chip Somodevilla Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close French train hero Spencer Stone stabbed in Sacramento 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

Spencer Stone, one of the heroes credited with preventing a massacre on a French train when he tackled a gunman, was stabbed multiple times in a Sacramento street early Thursday morning during a melee with a group of men, officials said.

Sacramento police reported that a stabbing occurred near the corner of 21st and K streets. Air Force officials released a statement confirming that Stone, a 23-year-old Air Force airman, had been attacked.

“Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, Air Force service member who helped thwart a gunman’s attack on a French train in August, was involved in a stabbing incident in Sacramento,” the statement reads. “He was transported to a local hospital, and is currently in stable condition.”

Sacramento police said they received a report of a stabbing at 12:46 a.m. after Stone — who had been out with four friends, a man and three women — got into a fight with at least two men and was stabbed multiple times in the upper body.

Investigators were called to the scene by a passerby, but the suspects had fled by the time officers got there.

“This incident is a very unfortunate altercation between two groups of folks who were enjoying the nightlife of Sacramento,” Deputy Chief Ken Bernard said at a news conference Thursday morning.

Police were examining surveillance-camera video taken from the A&P Liquor store at 21st and K streets, which store clerk Ryan Romandia said captured the fight.

Romandia said that in the footage, which he has viewed, Stone appears to be taking on at least six people by himself.

“You see the altercation. They seem to be exchanging words back and forth, then they start fighting and it just spills into the middle of the intersection,” Romandia said.

He said one of the men Stone is battling lunges at the airman, whose shirt turned red with blood.

“He didn’t go down,” Romandia said of Stone. “He walked away from the scene.”

The Sacramento Bee obtained a copy of the video and posted it online.

Bernard said Stone and his friends were out bar-hopping in the area when they got into an argument with the assailants, who were wearing white T-shirts and jeans. He said the argument continued as the groups walked down the street before it turned physical and Stone was stabbed.

“I can tell you he was stabbed more than once and they are significant injuries,” Bernard said.

He emphasized that there is no evidence the incident had anything to do with terrorism or connected to the train attack in France that Stone and his friends stopped.

Bernard said the suspects fled the scene in a dark gray or black, 2009 to 2012 Toyota Camry.

Prior to the news conference, Sacramento police issued a Twitter post, saying, “alcohol is believed to be a factor” in the altercation. But Bernard said it was unclear if Stone had been drinking.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk to Mr. Stone. We don’t know if he was drinking or not, but we know others in his party were drinking,” Bernard said.

On Aug. 21, Stone, along with childhood friends Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos, tackled a potential terrorist who boarded an Amsterdam-to-Paris train armed with an AK-47. The three Sacramento-area natives have been celebrated as heroes internationally and were awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, by French President François Hollande.

The three were lauded by President Obama and were the main attraction of a “Hometown Heroes” parade in Sacramento in September.

“Everybody send prayers out to the Stone family today,” Skarlatos — an Oregon Army National Guardsman, who is now a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” — tweeted Thursday morning.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale