A San Francisco teacher is lucky to be alive after a group of African migrants stabbed him on a train in Italy. Nick Pellegrino, 29, a Staten-born teacher who teaches at a Catholic school in San Francisco was riding a train through San Guiliano Milanese. Pellegrino, who teaches and coaches track at Archbishop Riordan, was visiting family when the train had just pulled into the station when a group of North African migrants approached him. They stabbed him in the neck with a 5-inch blade, stealing his gold crucifix and luggage before taking off. According to a GoFundMe set up for Pellegrino, the suitcase contained his laptop, clothes, and passport. The knife grazed his jugular, with Pellegrino losing around a liter-and-half of blood.

Somehow, he managed to stagger off the train and ask for help. In one video taken by an onlooker, Pellegrino could be heard crying out, “I don’t want to die, Lord.” Pellegrino said at the time, he felt like he was dying. “It took the ambulance 15 minutes to get to me. A few more minutes, and I was a goner. I could feel, with every heartbeat, another gush of blood coming out.” He recalled the horror of the moment right before the men stabbed him. “They looked like the 9/11 hijackers. 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 expressed exasperation that the attack was a symptom of a growing immigration problem in Italy. According to The New York Post, 157,600 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers came into Italy in 2023, with many coming from regions like Nigeria, Sudan, Gambia, Morocco, Eritrea, Tunisia, Bangladesh and Syria. “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,” Pellegrino stated. “I know America has a big immigration problem, but it is worse here,” he affirmed.

His brush with death, however, has only strengthened his faith. “I used to doubt. I don’t doubt anymore,” he said. “This has grounded me in my faith. I know Jesus saved me, and I will always be a believer.” He expressed concern for his mother, who is back in Staten Island. “My poor mother. She’s been a basket case.” Pellegrino’s injury required nine sutures. He is set to remain in the hospital until Saturday while doctors monitor a blood clot.

Prior to stabbing him, the men who attacked him had also Pellegrino’s attackers had smashed a glass bottle into an elderly man’s head and stolen a woman’s necklace. The two men were arrested by authorities, but their names have not been released. Those interested in supporting Pellegrino’s recovery can help here.