American stabbed in the neck by migrants while vacationing in Italy
Nick Pellegrino, 29, a Staten Island-born Catholic school coach now living in San Francisco, was ambushed by two migrants while traveling through San Giuliano Milanese.
He says he narrowly escaped with his life after losing more than a liter of blood in the horrific attack on Tuesday.
The pair, believed to be North African, stabbed him in the neck with a 5-inch blade, snatched his gold crucifix and luggage, and vanished – leaving Pellegrino slumped in a pool of blood on the platform.
'With these very loose, lefty immigration laws, these immigrants come into these countries and they're running amok, trying to murder people,' he told the New York Post in a phone interview from his hospital bed. 'It's a playground for terror, for the vicious.'
'It's f**king crazy,' he added. 'I know America has a big immigration problem, but it is worse here.'
Pellegrino, who was visiting relatives in Italy, said the attack unfolded moments after the train pulled into the station. He'd been looking at his phone when the men charged him.
'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,' he said.
The blade pierced his neck and grazed his jugular. Emergency workers later told him he'd lost around a liter-and-a-half of blood.
The attackers fled with his belongings and sacred jewelry.
Somehow, he managed to stagger off the train. A 16-year-old boy called for help as stunned onlookers filmed the wounded American begging for his life.
'I don't want to die, Lord,' he was heard repeating in the now-deleted clips shared briefly on Instagram.
'It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get to me,' Pellegrino recalled. 'A few more minutes, and I was a goner. I could feel, with every heartbeat, another gush of blood coming out.'
Doctors stitched up the wound with nine sutures and are monitoring a dangerous clot. He'll remain hospitalized until at least Saturday.
Italian authorities have since arrested the two men, though their names have not been released.
Pellegrino said investigators told him the pair had just attacked an elderly man with a glass bottle and robbed a woman of her necklace before turning on him.
The incident comes amid growing tension over the migrant crisis in Italy, where authorities have declared a national emergency.
More than 157,000 migrants and asylum seekers crossed the Mediterranean to Italy in 2023 alone – many from Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan and Syria – sparking crime fears and political unrest.
For Pellegrino, the traumatic ordeal has become a spiritual reckoning.
'I used to doubt,' he admitted. '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 booked to fly home on July 24 – but said his mother back in Staten Island has taken the whole ordeal harder than he has.
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