A 21-year-old American tourist was severely injured, including being slashed in the face with a knife, early on Sunday morning when he defended a group of women from a pair of harassers on a German tram, according to officials and family members.
John Rudat, a paramedic and part-time model from New York state, was visiting the city of Dresden to stay with his former foreign exchange host family when the incident occurred shortly after midnight.
“Initially, two men from a group harassed female passengers on the train,” the Dresden Police Department wrote in an online statement, originally in German. “A 21-year-old US citizen intervened and was stabbed by one of the other perpetrators during the ensuing altercation. The two perpetrators then fled the scene.”
Police caught one of the two alleged attackers, described by police as a 21-year-old Syrian, nearby.
The man was later released due to a lack of evidence tying the 21-year-old to the knife attack, officials told the German tabloid Bild.
Police added in an interview with the outlet that they are still searching for the second suspect.
Rudat’s brother, Logan, told The New York Post he wasn’t surprised his brother stepped in to protect the women.
“I would have been surprised if he hadn’t stepped in,” he said. “It’s part of his character. That’s just the way we were raised.”
The attack sent Rudat to the hospital and left him with serious injuries, including a “deep facial from a 6-inch knife blade,” according to a GoFundMe page.
“We strongly condemn the brutal attack on an American citizen in Dresden,” the U.S. Embassy in Berlin wrote on X. “While courageously intervening to protect a fellow passenger, he was viciously attacked. We urge German authorities to swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice and punish them to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
“He tried to help two young women and one of the assailants slashed his face,” Rudat’s manager Taylor Kelsaw wrote on Facebook. “This is a most heinous act of a crime. John had just begun his career with us. We are devastated, but thankful he wasn’t killed.”
In an Instagram video, a bandaged Rudat condemned police for releasing the suspect, and alleged without evidence that the suspect had a lengthy past criminal history and was released because he was not a citizen of Germany. He also seemed to suggest he knew the assailants previously.
Elsewhere in the video, Rudat claimed the incident showed Germany had an “immigrant problem.”
A study from a German research institute released this year found that migration and refugee admission did not lead to higher crime rates between 2018 and 2023 in areas where they settled.
