A group of teens who were allegedly harassing an “older gentleman” on the New York City subway attacked Fox News meteorologist Adam Klotz when he intervened on the man’s behalf.
Klotz told Fox & Friends he was headed home from a Manhattan bar around 1:15 a.m. on Sunday when he saw the teens harassing the man on a No. 1 train as 25 or 30 other riders looked on. One of the teens lit a joint and used their lighter to set the older man’s hair on fire, Klotz said.
“I was like, whoa, you can’t do that,” the 37-year-old weatherman said. “That’s not cool, and that’s all it took, and then I was the focus of all their attention.”
He said the group began taunting him. When he tried to leave to another subway car, the group followed him, he said.
“I get off that train after taking a punch,” Klotz said. “The whole group, the doors open again at another stop, the whole group just comes and bum rushes me, and suddenly I’m like, on the ground. I’m getting kicked in the side. I’m getting wailed on.”
“They were trying to knock me out, and then once you’re unconscious, and you’re getting punched like there’s no defense, so I was just doing my absolute best to cover my head,” he added.
He said he was kind of “knocked out” and his side is black and blue and he can hardly bend his knee.
Klotz was treated at a local hospital while three of the teen suspects — two 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old — were stopped by police but later released to their parents without facing charges, the New York Post reported. The teens were given juvenile reports by police and would only be charged if Klotz chooses to file a complaint with the city Department of Probation, according to the report. Then the department would decide whether to refer the case to the Law Department, which prosecutes juvenile cases in the city.
“I want someone to be held responsible, but really what I want is some sort of change,” he said when asked on Fox & Friends if he plans to press charges. “I don’t want this to happen to somebody else, and I don’t think necessarily just these kids getting in trouble. Like, where’s the structural things? Like, put some cops down there.”
Klotz said: “Why is the weather guy on the train trying to stop crime in the middle of the night? Like, where is Eric Adams? Where’s the city? Why am I doing this? Why is it up to me?”