John Rudat, 21, has been identified as the Good Samaritan who stepped in to help two women being attacked on a tram in Dresden, Germany, before he was then knifed in the face
A tourist was stabbed in the face and suffered gruesome injuries attempting to protect two women from being attacked on a tram.
John Rudat, 21, has been identified as the Good Samaritan who stepped in to help the fellow passengers on the tram in Dresden, Germany, early on Sunday morning. The part-time model from New York, who is also a newly qualified paramedic, suffered knife wounds to his face and rushed to hospital. Images from inside the tram show blood splattered across the floor along with tissues used to treat Mr Rudat.
It is reported that he was attacked by a 21-year-old Syrian national who was arrested on suspicion of assault before an accomplice came and stabbed him.
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But the man believed to have carried out the stabbing was released due to a lack of evidence. “According to the on-call public prosecutor’s assessment, there were insufficient grounds for detention. The knife attack cannot be attributed to him,” Senior Public Prosecutor Jurgen Schmidt told Bild.
“We got a little scared when we found out,” Molly, a fellow first responder, told the New York Post. “We didn’t know the extent of his injuries. We were at dinner the other day and he called saying, ‘Hey, I’ve been in an incident, I’m OK, just if you can notify my parents because they weren’t answering the phone.”
Mr Rudat took to Instagram to complain that the man had been released due to a lack of evidence.
“This is not the first time this has happened. It’s not the first time that man has beaten up women, and it’s not the first time that the other guy decided to take a swing at my face with a six-inch blade,” he said.
“If they could do this to the people of Germany and then just get released 12 hours later — even less at this point — where is the law? Where is the structure?”
The US Embassy in Germany has issued a statement calling on Mr Rudat’s attacker to be caught. It stated: “We strongly condemn the brutal attack on an American citizen in Dresden. 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. Safety is a collective responsibility—no one is safe until all are safe.”