Man proposes to girlfriend in Central Park — then gets stabbed in the neck
A dream weekend, including a romantic proposal in New York’s Central Park, turned into a nightmare for Connor Rasmussen.
On Friday, the 23-year-old from Puyallup, Wash., surprised his girlfriend, Jordan Asher, 22, by dropping to one knee and asking her to marry him in the famous park.
Family members and friends who were in on the surprise huddled behind a big rock nearby to watch the happy moment.
It was the couple’s first time in New York City.
On Saturday the new bride-to-be went shopping for a dress at Kleinfeld Bridal, where TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” is filmed.
On Sunday afternoon as Rasmussen and a few friends were walking around Midtown looking for a pizza place, a man in a black beanie walked up and plunged a steak knife into the base of Rasmussen’s neck, according to The New York Daily News.
“He dropped me off at my hotel and a group of our friends were walking back to their hotel, and they wanted to get pizza next to it,” Asher told CBS New York. “As he was walking back, a man just came behind him and literally stabbed him in the back of his head.”
Rasmussen told the Daily News he didn’t realize at first that he had been stabbed.
“I was so confused. I felt the handle of the knife and I pulled it out. I then checked for blood and immediately put pressure on it,” he said.
“I got stabbed! I got stabbed!” he shouted to his friends.
The bride-to-be’s grandmother, Linda Colon, told WABC the attacker came out from a “dark place” and might have wanted to steal the things Rasmussen was carrying for a friend.
“It must have been close to the spinal column for them to think it could have been deadly,” said Colon, who updated her Facebook profile with a photo of the proposal.
Rasmussen told the Daily News that his attacker didn’t say anything.
“Honestly, he looked shocked that I wasn’t on the ground,” said Rasmussen. “I was very lucky. This kind of happens in big cities. Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in, and I just happened to be in New York.”
He got stitches for a 2-inch gash the knife left on his neck.
The incident left her future grandson shaken, Colon told WABC.
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. And now he hates New York,” she said.
Rasmussen joked that maybe the New England Patriots jersey he was wearing made his attacker angry. “I couldn’t tell you what was in that guy’s mind,” he told the Daily News. “I’m a huge Patriots fan, and I hope that’s not enough to do that to me.”
No arrests have been made.
This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 12:15 PM with the headline "Man proposes to girlfriend in Central Park — then gets stabbed in the neck."