Latest news with #NicholasPellegrino
Los Angeles Times
21 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
California teacher stabbed in neck while on Italian vacation is returning home
With every beat of his heart, 29-year-old Nicholas Pellegrino felt like he was another pump closer to death. The religion and Spanish teacher at San Francisco's Archbishop Riordan High School was at the San Donato Milanese train station in Milan, Italy, and he was bleeding out. It was just before noon on July 15, and Pellegrino was supposed to be on a two-hour train heading southeast to Florence but was instead grasping for hope that an ambulance would arrive in time to save him. Photos taken of him on the station floor showed his chest and shorts soaked in blood. After 15 minutes, paramedics arrived and rushed the Staten Island, N.Y., native to a local hospital, where he somehow survived being brutally slashed in the throat. Authorities say the attack was carried out by a group of North African migrants. Now, more than a week removed from what he described as 'ISIS-level barbarism,' Pellegrino confirmed to The Times he had recovered enough to fly back to New York on Thursday. 'Miracles still happen,' Pellegrino, a professed Catholic, said in a phone interview Wednesday evening. 'I'm grateful to be alive.' The train ride was supposed to have been a small blip in Pellegrino's day. He was leaving one set of friends in Northern Italy to join another in Tuscany on what was an Italian vacation before the start of the fall semester. Within minutes of boarding the train, Pellegrino said he was surveilled by four men sitting about 10 rows away from him. When he put his head down, one slashed his jugular vein with a pocketknife while another stole his laptop, clothes and passport, according to Pellegrino. One also violently ripped off a gold cross hanging around Pellegrino's neck. The 'thugs were not afraid of me,' Pellegrino said. 'They were armed with pocketknives and had the intent to murder me.' Pellegrino thought he would die as he dragged himself off the train and to a nearby platform. The attack happened around 11:30 a.m., according to authorities. Pellegrino boarded the train at a previous station. He said he thought of two things in the moments after the attack. 'A, I was looking around to see where the suspects were just to make sure they wouldn't come around to finish me off,' he said. 'And then, B, I felt the blood literally pumping out of me with each beat and just hoped the ambulance would arrive on time.' Pellegrino was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he received emergency care to stabilize the wound, according to Italian medi. He was then moved to an intensive care unit, where he received nine stitches. He had been hospitalized there from July 15 to Sunday, then was staying with a friend until his flight to the U.S. The Italian newspaper Milano Today reported that two 21-year-old men were detained by police on suspicion of aggravated robbery. Pellegrino said he testified in court Wednesday and the pair were now facing more serious charges of premeditated attempted homicide. He said authorities found his gold cross and chain inside one of the suspect's intestinal tracts. The two hailed from Tunisia and are part of a gang, according to Milano Today. 'The police told me I was the seventh victim they attacked over a 48-hour stretch,' Pellegrino said. 'That's crazy stuff; that's something from a movie.' Although the alleged perpetrators fled the train platform, they were identified through CCTV footage, according to Milano Today. The two men were arrested attempting to board a bus carrying a switchblade and a stolen pendant, the news outlet reported. Pellegrino said two other suspects standing guard at the time of his attack were also arrested. Italian authorities did not respond to a call from The Times, nor did anyone from the American Consulate in Milan. With his passport still not recovered, Pellegrino confirmed that he was granted a temporary passport to return home. 'I was told these guys had previously served six months on various other small robberies,' Pellegrino said. 'These are evil people with bad intent.' Before working at the San Francisco high school, Pellegrino was a teacher and track coach at Monsignor Farrell High School in Staten Island, N.Y. One of his friends and former students, Finn McCole, set up a GoFundMe along with other former students of Pellegrino. 'We are setting up this GoFundMe to help Nick pay for any medical expenses incurred during his hospital stay, and to replace his lost valuables,' McCole wrote on the page. 'Finn's a great guy and a former student-athlete of mine and we're still friends,' Pellegrino said. 'I'm surprised by that amount of money, and it just goes to show that even though teaching is a thankless job, the students are craving and grateful for a role model.'
Fox News
3 days ago
- Fox News
American religious studies teacher survives horrific migrant attack while vacationing in Italy
A former high school track star and current San Francisco religion teacher was brutally attacked while vacationing in Italy earlier this month. Nicholas Pellegrino, who teaches religious studies and Spanish at Archbishop Riordan High School, according to the school's website, was attacked by three individuals on a train just south of Milan on July 15. "I would look up, and they would look away, but then they'd continue to look back and eye me out," Pellegrino recounted to the Staten Island Advance. He said he suspected the men "were up to no good." Pellegrino said he had his head down for just a moment when the men suddenly charged at him, stabbing him in the neck during the struggle and taking his luggage. "He (the attacker) then ripped off the gold crucifix from my neck, and ran away with my luggage as the train doors opened," he explained to the outlet. Bleeding heavily, Pellegrino managed to reach the next platform and yelled out for help. "I was left on the platform screaming for my life," he recalled. A photo posted on a GoFundMe page created to support his recovery shows him bloodied and receiving care from paramedics. According to the fundraiser, Pellegrino was robbed and sustained a serious neck wound. The attackers, identified as North African migrants, allegedly took his luggage, passport, laptop and a gold cross he was wearing. Pellegrino is currently recovering in an Italian hospital and remains in good spirits, according to his friend Finn McCole, who started the GoFundMe campaign. "Nick is grateful to be alive and is relying on his faith," McCole said. "Even though he wouldn't ask for help himself, we're raising funds to cover his medical bills and replace his stolen belongings." The San Francisco Chronicle reported that four suspects from Morocco and Tunisia were arrested several hours later at another train station about an hour from the crime scene. Authorities believe these same individuals may also be connected to a separate assault on a taxi driver and possibly another attempted robbery on a train. After several days in the hospital, Pellegrino was released. Though his personal belongings were lost, he remains deeply thankful. "My life from this day forward is a miracle," he told the Staten Island Advance. "I've been saved by the right hand of the almighty Father." According to the Staten Island Advance, Pellegrino taught Italian and served as a track and field coach at Monsignor Farrell High School in the Oakwood section of Staten Island, New York, from 2017 to 2022. He is also an alumnus of Farrell, where he was referred to as a "standout athlete on the track team." Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Popular S.F. teacher and coach brutally attacked and robbed while visiting Italy
The thought kept flashing through Nicholas Pellegrino's mind as he sat on a train station outside of Milan, blood pouring from his throat. If the 29-year-old San Francisco high school teacher and track coach didn't get help soon, he was going to die. 'I had no doubt about that in my mind,' he said. 'It's a feeling of helplessness that I don't wish on my worst enemy.' Moments before, several passengers had attacked him, slashing his throat with a knife and robbing him. Pellegrino, who teaches religion at San Francisco's Archbishop Riordan High School, had traveled to Italy this month for vacation. He was looking forward to seeing relatives and friends in northern Italy. On July 15, he'd caught a train just before noon from just Melegnano, a Milanese suburb, bound for Florence. But the moment he stepped on the train, something felt off. A few seats down, several passengers kept staring at him — then quickly looking away whenever they saw him looking back. As the train rolled into the next stop, one of them rushed him, swinging a knife. With blood pouring from his neck, the thieves ripped the crucifix he was wearing and grabbed his backpack and luggage. Pellegrino clapped a hand to his neck and ran out of the train. He staggered to a column on the platform and sat down, screaming for help. He took his shirt off and pressed it against his throat, trying to staunch the blood pouring out. 'This was going to be the end,' he kept thinking. Paramedics arrived about 15 minutes later and rushed him to the hospital. During the assault, Pellegrino's attackers nicked — but didn't fully sever — his jugular artery, doctors later determined. By the time they were able to stop the bleeding and repair the artery, he'd lost more than a liter of blood. 'Even the surgeons are saying it was a miracle,' he told the Chronicle by phone after being discharged from the hospital in San Donato Milanese. 'There's no other way to put it.' Italian authorities arrested the attack suspects several hours later at a train station about an hour from where Pellegrino was assaulted. Police told him the suspects are four North African men from Tunisia and Morocco who authorities determined were in the country illegally, he said. Police told Pellegrino they'd already been tracking his assailants — they were believed to have attacked and tried to rob another passenger the same day, and they'd assaulted a cabdriver the night before, slitting his wrist in the attack. Pellegrino spent four days in hospital, until doctors were sure that his vein was healing correctly and that his blood levels were safe. Riordan assistant principal Nate Simon called Pellegrino an 'integral part' of the school's community and a beloved teacher and coach. 'We were so sad to hear about what happened, but we've spoken with him and he seems to be doing much better,' he said. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with him as he deals with this terrifying incident.' Finn McCole was a student of Pellegrino's in New York, before the teacher started working in San Francisco. Pellegrino was his track coach, he said, and over the years they became good friends, training together and traveling with other students. McCole recalled trips to Italy, where Pellegrino acted 'almost like a tour guide.' 'He loves Italy,' McCole said. 'He loves the culture, the people. That's why it's so horrifying that he goes there and something like this happens.' McCole and other students set up a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses and replace his stolen belongings, including his laptop and passport. By Saturday afternoon, the account had raised more than $38,000. 'I'm speechless,' Pellegrino said of the donations from his former students and hundreds of others. 'I would never have expected that outpouring of money/support. I guess it shows that the impact you have being an educator/teacher is more than people might think.' A deeply religious man, Pellegrino said the experience has only strengthened his faith. 'I'm convinced the hand of God worked a miracle to ensure I did not lose my life that day,' he said.
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
Stabbed Staten Islander lucky to be alive after Italian migrant attack
A Staten Island native came face to face with the worst of Italy's migrant crisis this week when he was nearly killed while vacationing in Milan. Nick Pellegrino was attacked on a train Tuesday by a pair of North African migrants, who stabbed him in the neck with a 5-inch knife before making off with his luggage and jewelry — leaving him to die in a pool of his own blood in his family's homeland, which has experienced a surge in criminal migrants over the past four years. 'With these very loose, lefty immigration laws, these immigrants come into these countries and they're running amok, trying to murder people. It's a playground for terror, for the vicious,' said Pellegrino, 29, speaking by phone from his hospital bed in the town of San Donato Milanese. Advertisement 'It's f–king crazy,' he said. 'I know America has a big immigration problem, but it is worse here.' 4 Nicholas Pellegrino, left, knows he's lucky to be alive: 'Life is a gift.' Obtained by the New York Post Pellegrino — a former teacher at prestigious Monsignor Farrell High School in Oakwood who was visiting friends and family in Italy — recalled looking down at his phone as the train from Melegnano to Milan Bovisa rolled into the San Giuliano Milanese station. Advertisement When the train doors opened, his mid-20s, Arabic-speaking attackers darted towards him, stabbing him in the neck, nicking his jugular vein, Pellegrino said. 'They looked like the 9/11 hijackers,' Pellegrino said. 'I remember looking at the floor in the train and just seeing the blade of the knife, and the most frightening amount of blood I have ever seen.' Pellegrino was later told by EMTs he lost about a liter-and-a-half of blood, said Pellegrino, who now teaches religion and coaches track at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco. Before stealing his luggage and leaving him for dead, Pellegrino's homicidal attackers snatched the gold crucifix from around his neck, he said. Advertisement 4 Eyewitnesses shared footage on Instagram of EMTs working on Pellegrino. Obtained by the New York Post A blood-soaked Pellegrino managed to stumble onto the train platform, where a 16-year-old boy dialed 112, Italy's 911 equivalent. He was filmed on the platform by bystanders, repeating, 'I don't want to die, Lord,' in since-deleted videos that were posted to Instagram. 'It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get to me,' he said. 'A few more minutes, and I was a goner. I could feel, with every heartbeat, another gush of blood coming out.' Advertisement He was rushed to the emergency room, where surgeons closed the wound with nine stitches. He'll remain under observation until at least Saturday, as doctors wait for a dangerous blood clot to shrink. 4 Pellegrino said the two men who attacked him have been detained. Nicholas Pellegrino/ Facebook Italian authorities have arrested the two migrants, but have not yet released their names, Pellegrino said. Before attacking the bi-coastal New Yorker, the two men smacked an elderly man in the head with a glass bottle and stole an old woman's necklace, Milan investigators told Pellegrino. Since at least 2021, Italy has seen a surge in migrant arrivals by sea from Nigeria, Sudan, Gambia, Morocco, Eritrea, Tunisia, Bangladesh and Syria. Over 157,600 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers crossed the Mediterranean Sea to get to Italy in 2023. Last year, 66,000 migrants crossed into Italy. Their arrivals have put a strain on public resources and their presence has become a source of political tension, leading officials to declare a state of emergency. 4 Pellegrino visits Italy on his summer breaks to see family and friends. Nicholas Pellegrino/ Facebook Pellegrino said his brush with death has only reinforced his belief in God. Advertisement 'I used to doubt,' admitted Pellegrino. 'I don't doubt anymore. This has grounded me in my faith. I know Jesus saved me, and I will always be a believer.' He's got a July 24 return flight booked, and said he'll make a full recovery from his frightening ordeal. His mother in Staten Island, not so much. 'My poor mother,' he said. 'She's been a basket case.'
