The Bear writer removed from train by MTA police after complaint from 'old white woman': 'Sitting...

&34;I was not just treated as a guilty man, I was treated as a violent man,&34; screenwriter Alex O'Keefe tells EW after being handcuffed and forcibly taken off

"I was not just treated as a guilty man, I was treated as a violent man," screenwriter Alex O'Keefe tells EW after being handcuffed and forcibly taken off a New York commuter train.

The Bear writer removed from train by MTA police after complaint from 'old white woman': 'Sitting while Black is not illegal'**

"I was not just treated as a guilty man, I was treated as a violent man," screenwriter Alex O'Keefe tells EW after being handcuffed and forcibly taken off a New York commuter train.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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on September 22, 2025 9:51 p.m. ET

Alex O'Keefe at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards. Credit:

Amy Sussman/Getty

Alex O'Keefe, an award-winning writer known for working on the hit FX dramedy *The Bear*, was handcuffed and removed from a New York commuter train last week after a complaint from a fellow passenger.

In an Instagram post Thursday, O'Keefe, who is Black, wrote, "An old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting. I refused so she went to the conductor and complained. The conductor called the police and stopped the train. While waiting for the police to arrive, the old Karen's friend said 'You're not the minority anymore.'"

O'Keefe also posted two videos of his interaction with Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers, as well as photos of the alleged source of the complaint and another passenger.**

"The last thing any Black man wants is a viral arrest video," O'Keefe shared in a statement to * *on Monday. "I worked my entire life in politics and culture to be taken seriously, and to make our country a better place. But my accomplishments and awards cannot protect me from the violence we've all normalized. American life is full of brutal irony."

He continued, "Sitting while Black is not illegal."

MTA police said in a statement to ** that officers "responded to a report of a disorderly passenger on Train #1518 at Fordham Metro-North station in the Bronx" at around 10:25 a.m. last Thursday. "The train was en route from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven, when a conductor reported a passenger occupying two seats had refused to remove his feet from one of the seats."

Citing an investigation, body camera footage, and on-board security camera footage, the MTA said that a "31 year-old male was observed with both legs stretched across an adjacent seat. When MTAPD officers boarded, he refused police direction to exit. Officers told the passenger to depart the train onto the platform, where he would be able to board a following train."

The MTA denied that O'Keefe was ever placed under arrest, saying that he after he refused to exit the train voluntarily, he was handcuffed, removed, "issued a summons for disorderly conduct," and allowed to board the next train.

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"This happened just 4 days after my wedding, on my 2-hour commute back to work. I rely on the MTA everyday, but on Thursday the MTA failed to keep me safe. My newlywed wife was heartbroken. This is the worst way to spend a Honeymoon," O'Keefe continued in his statement to EW.

"This incident was a series of power trips, white authority figures flexing their dominance over a Black man," he continued. "The police failed to take a statement from anyone before removing the only black male customer from a train car headed to Connecticut. They threatened to bring me to jail and searched for pretext to further escalate the situation. I was not just treated as a guilty man, I was treated as a violent man. In truth, its people like me who make America great."

O'Keefe expressed "overwhelming love and solidarity" for the support he has received since going public with Thursday's incident, adding that he will be "pursuing legal action to defend my rights."**

Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri on 'The Bear'.

The first video shared by O'Keefe depicts his initial exchange with MTAPD officers while still aboard the train. "This white woman said she didn't like the way I was sitting on the train, so you call the police to arrest the one Black dude on the train," O'Keefe can be heard saying, while pointing at the alleged source of the complaint and being hoisted up and handcuffed by officers.

"I was sitting on a train and I'm being arrested, for what? Can I not even know what I'm being arrested for?" O'Keefe asks officers as they pull him out of his seat and force him off the train.

The second video in O'Keefe's post shows four officers surrounding him as he stands handcuffed facing a wall. "How did they know she was talking about you?" An unidentified person can be heard saying off camera. "They don't know," O'Keefe responds. "They just saw the Black guy and they arrested me."

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O'Keefe noted in the caption of his post that "only black folks stayed nearby and recorded the arrest. When I demanded a lawyer and reminded them they didn't even take a statement from the woman who complained they eventually released me. This country is growing more psycho by the day. What will you do about it?"

O'Keefe was among a group of writers on *The Bear* who accepted the Best Comedy Series award at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards.

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