PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia city councilman stabbed in an attempted robbery near his residence said Thursday that he’s lucky the blade didn’t hit his vital organs.
Republican Councilman David Oh was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon.
“I feel very good, good health, good spirits, good everything,” Oh told reporters at an impromptu news conference on his front porch.
Oh said he was coming home from work Wednesday night when a man he did not recognize approached, demanded the keys to his car and stabbed him once in the left side.
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Police were still looking for the assailant, and no arrests have been made.
“It was just like (the man) was in attack mode,” neighbor Elliott Williams, who saw part of the attack, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Williams said he shouted, “The cops are coming!” and the assailant fled.
Oh underwent surgery overnight, said Matt Pershe, a legislative aide.
The attack occurred on the block where Oh, who is married and has four children, has lived since the 1960s. Oh, first elected to the council in 2011, is the first Asian-American elected to public office in Philadelphia and the only U.S. military veteran serving on the council.
He said Thursday he holds no ill will toward the man but considers him dangerous and wants him caught.
Oh’s late father founded Philadelphia’s first Korean-American church in 1953.
According to Oh’s council website , one of his cousins was murdered in 1958 by a group of teenagers while a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Oh’s parents requested leniency for the boys and started a fund to help them upon their release.
Police said they would be searching for surveillance video and interviewing potential witnesses. Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney urged anyone with information to come forward.
“We are all praying for Councilman Oh’s quick recovery and thinking of his family during this incredibly difficult time,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Whenever violence happens on our streets it is a terrible tragedy. When it happens near our homes, where we are supposed to feel safe, it is all the more devastating.”
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Councilman David Oh: http://phlcouncil.com/DavidOh