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.
“It’s f–king crazy,” he said. “I know America has a big immigration problem, but it is worse here.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Pellegrino said his brush with death has only reinforced his belief in God.
“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.”
