Three teenagers who badly battered Fox News weatherman Adam Klotz on the New York City subway have been released without charges.
Social media users were up in arms today after discovering the suspects will not face criminal investigation with one woman asking: ‘how can anyone feel safe in the city?’
The handling of the case will no doubt add fuel to criticism of Manhattan’s District Attorney Alvin Bragg who has frequently been accused of being too ‘woke‘ and soft on crime since he took on the role in November 2021.
Klotz was left with a black eye and bruised ribs after he intercepted a group of teenagers on the subway at around 1.15am on Sunday morning who were said to be harassing an older man.
Klotz had injuries to boy eyes and grazes on his face, but said the wounds to his body were worse in a video uploaded to Instagram account on Sunday
The case will no doubt add fuel to criticism facing woke Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, pictured, who has been frequently accused of being too soft on crime
The 37-year-old weatherman uploaded a video to his Instagram stories looking beaten, with both his eyelids covered in red and purple bruises.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to Dailymail.com that two 15-year-old men and one 17-year-old had been arrested but were released to their guardians with Juvenile Reports for Assault.
Just last week Bragg came under fire for offering a plea deal to a man accused of an anti-Semitic attack who said he ‘would do it again’.
Meanwhile the attack on Klotz comes as data shows that subway crime in New York increased by 30 percent between 2021 and 2022.
Fox News weatherman Adam Klotz, 37, was beaten by teenagers on the Subway after he says he told them to stop bothering an old man
In a statement, the NYPD said: ‘On Sunday, January 22, 2023 at approximately 01.13 hours, the 37-year-old male victim was on board a southbound 1 train approaching the West 18 Street and 7 Avenue station when he observed group of four teenagers acting disorderly on the train.
‘The victim asked the individuals to stop, at which point they began to assault the victim, punching him in the face multiple times.
‘When the train arrived at the 18 Street and 7 Avenue station all four individuals and the victim exited the train.’
The statement added that police caught three of the suspects while the fourth fled and they were unable to apprehend him.
‘All were released to guardians with Juvenile reports for assault,’ the NYPD added.
New York citizens appeared horrified by the news today as they took to Twitter to vent their frustration.
One user wrote: ‘Why were the thugs who attacked Adam Klotz released? How can anyone feel safe in the city?’
Another said: ‘Not one of these creatures spent even a night in jail. While Adam Kotz survived the attack, the next victim might not.’
Meanwhile Klotz himself appeared to make light of the incident last night.
Twitter users were appalled to discover none of the suspects had been charged
One user labelled Klotz’s attackers ‘creatures’ and condemned the fact they hadn’t spent a night in jail
The beating happened at around 1.15am at 18th Street station by the 1 train
He told his 7,000 followers: ‘While the headline I just read ‘viciously beaten by teenagers ‘ is true, it’s doing way more damage to my ego than the physical beating did.’
And he also insisted he wasn’t angry after one Twitter user expressed surprise he had managed to find humor in the incident.
Klotz, who is originally from Indiana, wrote: ‘Sorry friend. I’m not gonna go thru [sic] life angry. I’mma gonna do the hard thing and find a way to smile and laugh while I’m doing it.’
The weatherman hit headlines yesterday after uploading an Instagram video where he explained he had been attacked.
He told his followers he had been on his way home after watching the New York Giants NFL playoff when he saw the teens bothering the older man.
In the video, he said: ‘Coming home last night from watching the [New York] Giants game at a bar, on the subway, this older gentleman was being hassled by this group of seven or eight teens.
‘I was like, ‘Yo, guys, cut that out.’ And they decided, ‘Alright, he’s not gonna get it, then you’re going to get it.
‘And boy did they give it to me. They had me on the ground, my ribs are all kinds of bruised up too. They got their hits in.’
The old man that Klotz said he was defending was fine and able to get away unscathed, he said.
Crime on the subway was up last year but Mayor Eric Adams has suggested that those statistics are merely a reflection of the fact that more people are using it in post-pandemic New York.
In response to the subway’s high crime rate the city has sought to deploy more NYPD officers to man stations. This year the department is spending an additional $20million each month on police overtime, Bloomberg reported.
Klotz made light of the incident on Sunday as he joked the incident had harmed his ego
The 37-year-old weatherman said he didn’t want to go through life ‘angry’ about the attack
Bragg was elected as Manhattan’s DA in November 2021 and led with the soft-on-crime approach of using prison as a last resort.
He campaigned on the promise of criminal justice reform and issued a controversial ‘Day One’ memo after assuming office that said he would only seek prison time in the most severe cases.
That same month Bragg took office, career criminal William Rolon, who faced only misdemeanor charges for threatening a store worker with a knife, was told by a judge that he should ‘feel lucky’ because of Bragg’s new policies.
Bragg’s sweeping changes called on prosecutors to ditch felony armed robbery charges and instead charge suspects with petty larceny – a misdemeanor which carries a maximum of one year in prison – even when a weapon is involved if the firearm did not ‘create a genuine risk of physical harm.
