Adam Klotz, a Fox News meteorologist, was badly beaten at the New York City Subway by a group of teenagers after he intervened on behalf of an elderly man who set their hair on fire. But he does not focus on the possibility of charges being brought against the teens.
Klotz said that while he has advised that teens who assaulted him be charged, he told Fox News Monday that he wants Mayor Eric Adams to “do something long-term so that this doesn’t happen to someone else, more than just me. Some kind of short-term revenge.”
Klotz was riding the No. 1 train on his way home after watching a Giants-Eagles NFL playoff game at a Manhattan bar after midnight Saturday when he noticed a group of teens heckling an “older guy,” before setting his hair on fire with a joint, mentioned in an interview on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday.
“His whole head was on fire. And I was just sitting there watching him and how can you not [say] “Guys, you can’t do that,” Klotz said. “They didn’t want to be told what they couldn’t do, and suddenly the focus was on me.”
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FILE – A video surveillance camera hangs from the ceiling above a subway platform, Wednesday, October 7, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.
((AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File))
When a group of seven teenagers verbally mocked him, Klotz exited the subway car, hoping to ease the interaction. But the group followed by kicking and slamming him to the ground.
“I actually moved into a whole other car on the train at a stop. We came to a full stop. The doors are open, I kind of think it’s over,” Klotz said. “The whole group comes and the gang rushes me and jumps on me, and starts hitting and kicking me. I hear ‘put him to sleep, put him to sleep’.” They wanted to kick me out. My goal at that point was just to cover my head because once you passed out. Who knows what would happen? For kicking and landing on the side and trampling on my side.”
Kloots, who had visible bruises above his eyes in the television interview, told “Fox & Friends” earlier Monday that he had a severe roll on his side and was struggling to bend his knee. He was treated at a local hospital after the attack.
Police arrested three teenage suspects in connection with the attack, but they were released to their parents without facing charges.
Fox News meteorologist Adam Klotz revealed bruising after being badly beaten on the subway over the weekend.
(Screenshot: Adam Kloots – Instagram)
“Event reports were drawn up, and their parents were called to pick her up,” said an NYPD rep. New York Post.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams called Kloots to Police intensified In the transportation system to protect passengers from subway violence.
“I want it to be something… Why is the weatherman on the train trying to stop a crime in the middle of the night? Like, Where’s Eric Adams? Where’s the town? Why am I doing this? Why is it up to me?” he said earlier on Monday.
“What I want is a kind of change. I don’t want this to happen to someone else, and I don’t necessarily think it’s just these kids who get into trouble, like, where’s the structural stuff? Like, put some cops in there,” Kloots continued.
The New York Post reports that since 2020, approximately 21 people have been killed in the subway system. According to the data, this number is more than 20 murders recorded between 2008 and 2019 combined.
In October, a Good Samaritan was stabbed on Train 6 just before 6 a.m. Wednesday at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall. The 31-year-old was trying to break up a fight between two women when one of the women stabbed him in the neck, shoulder and arm.
Adams was criticized at the time for downplaying the attack, arguing that most New Yorkers used the system without a problem.
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, during a New York State Financial Oversight Board meeting in New York, US, on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.
(Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We’re going to deal with those crimes that are happening,” he told the New York Post, “and we’re going to continue to work on the six felonies of the day that we have.”
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“But I know that 3.5 million people use our system every day without any encounter,” he added.
Fox News’ Emma Colton and Bailey Hill contributed to this report.