Without hesitation, he intervened, according to details shared on a fundraiser organized by his brother’s girlfriend, Molly.
Rudat, who works part-time as a model and had recently qualified as a paramedic, was then violently assaulted.
He suffered deep knife wounds to his face and required hospitalization after the confrontation.
“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.”
According to social media videos he later posted, he had crossed paths with a local criminal who was already known to police as a drug dealer and a violent offender.
Shocking images from the scene showed blood spattered across the tram floor and tissues used by passengers as they tried to help control Rudat’s bleeding before emergency crews arrived.
Authorities later confirmed that one of the suspects, a 21-year-old man from Syria, was arrested on suspicion of attacking Rudat. Another man is believed to have followed up the beating with the stabbing.
“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 explained to Bild.
Meanwhile, Rudat’s brother Logan told The Post that his sibling’s courage came as no surprise to him.
“It’s part of his character. That’s just the way we were raised,” Logan added, noting that he hopes his brother will be able to safely return to the U.S. in the coming days.
“If y’all didn’t think Europe had an immigration problem, especially Germany, let me drop some knowledge on you,” he said, his voice strained beneath the heavy wrapping around his nose and mouth.
“It is 11:57 a.m. right now. In three minutes, that man that assaulted that young woman will be released from custody. He’ll be released from custody because he’s not a citizen of Germany, he’s not a citizen of the EU for that matter,” Rudat explained.
He concluded his message by stressing: “If Germans are held to that law and that structure, but these people could just come in, swing knives and hurt, abuse, terrorize and oppress citizens of Germany, then what do we do?”
“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,” the statement read.
Back in New York, Logan said the community’s response to the shocking news had been “incredibly supportive”
“All my coworkers, all Molly’s coworkers, every friend, teacher, all of Johnny’s coworkers, everyone has been incredibly supportive of him.”
