Spencer Stone ‘awake, able to get out of bed’ day after life-threatening stabbing

Reporting from Sacramento —  Spencer Stone, the U.S. airman who gained world fame for helping thwart an attack on a French train and recaptured it again as the victim of a Sacramento street brawl, is now “awake, able to get out of bed and in good spirits.”

The media staff of the UC Davis Medical Center on Friday upgraded Stone’s medical condition from serious to “fair,” meaning his vital signs were stable and normal. No additional medical information was provided.

Sacramento police continue to seek at least two suspects involved in Stone’s stabbing early Thursday morning on a street in a popular nightclub district. The department released a statement Friday afternoon again appealing for witnesses to come forward.

“We know that Airman Stone was out with four friends when a confrontation with a second group of subjects occurred. That confrontation escalated into a physical fight and the stabbing,” the agency said.

The department repeated the description of suspects in the case: two Asian men wearing white shirts and blue jeans, who fled in a dark-colored Toyota Camry. Police said a woman also was observed leaving with the suspects.

A 28-year-old Sacramento resident, Cammy Ching, said she was with friends at the Badlands bar around midnight Thursday morning when one of her friends recognized Stone from media reports. She said he was with four other friends in the bar at the time.

Some time after midnight, Ching said, she saw Stone leave. “He was carrying a friend on his shoulder, a girl who seemed to be passed out drunk,” Ching told The Times.

Ching said the bar had been selling $1 drinks from 11 p.m. to midnight.

Ching said she did not follow them outside and did not witness any part of the ensuing altercation.

Security camera footage from a nearby liquor store shows Stone and a half-dozen individuals fighting. Some of those involved appeared to be fighting alongside Stone.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

A second video released by police shows three individuals apparently fleeing through an alley and then getting into a waiting car.

Stone, 23, was treated at the hospital for three stab wounds to the chest and was in serious condition in the intensive care unit after surgery Thursday.

The U.S. airman was the first American to tackle a gunman aboard a Paris-bound train over the summer. He and two friends were lauded as heroes and hailed by President Obama and French President Francois Hollande.

ALSO

Deadly Oxnard crash prompts Metrolink to put locomotives at both ends of trains

L.A. drivers, beware: #Obamajam, two major sports matches will make traffic miserable

How L.A. conquered an earthquake danger zone: Brick buildings