A social media influencer and singer said he was almost killed in an assault and stabbing incident on a subway train early in the new year.
TikToker Chris Olsen said he was riding the subway with a friend when two men started shouting at each other, thinking it was a typical New York City subway argument.
“We just witnessed a stabbing and almost died on the subway,” Olsen said. Video posted on TikTok on January 1st.
Olsen, who said she takes the subway “all the time,” wasn't fazed by the shouting match, but her friend Carla, who lives outside the city, said she was “a little nervous,” but she's OK with that. I reassured him.
A shouting match ensued, and one of the unidentified straphangers pulled out a “very large knife.”
Unaware of the impending danger, Olsen, Carla, and the remaining passengers remained seated inside the subway car until the man “in the back” lunged toward the other man.
“Everyone on the train gets up and starts running towards Carla and me, because we're nearing the end of the line,” he said in a video that has been viewed more than 10 million times.
Olsen, who was at the door to change cars, used “adrenaline and untapped superhero strength” to pry the door open as the frenzied crowd jumped to the next car.
A group of panicked straphangers rushed into the other vehicle, and those inside began yelling at the commotion, all rushing to the opposite end to get to the next vehicle in line.
“The door in front of it is completely locked, but all you can hear behind it is people screaming. We don't know if someone took a gun or not, and we don't know who else was stabbed.” .
Olsen said she heard screams behind her as the growing crowd pushed her friends against a wall, leaving them with no escape.
One of the passengers pulled the emergency brake to stop the train, where Olsen estimated he remained seated for 20 minutes.
Frustrated, the man allegedly yelled at his fellow riders to stop shouting and calm down because “it's just going to make things worse for everyone.”
Eventually, the conductor arrived inside the train, opened the locked doors, and allowed the evacuated passengers to board and sit in the next car, and the train moved on to the next station.
Olsen, who has around 14 million followers on the app, was undaunted by the New Year's morning experience and was commuting to work by train on Thursday.
“I went back to the subway to prevent a trauma response from forming,” he wrote on his Instagram Story. “I was a little shaken, but I survived!”
Olsen did not say which train she was on, but New York City subways were the scene of multiple stabbings early in the new year.
Just after 2am on New Year's Day, a fight broke out on a train in Hell's Kitchen, resulting in two men stabbing each other. Fox 5 NY reported.
Later that morning, two more men were stabbed in separate incidents. In the first incident, a 30-year-old man was stabbed with a knife on Platform 1 at 110th Street Cathedral Parkway.
About 15 minutes later, a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the back on a northbound No. 2 train at 14th Street Station.
Both victims were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
