A onetime writer for FX's hit show “The Bear” was taken off a New York City commuter train in handcuffs in a dispute over how he was sitting — an incident he recorded in a video shared widely on social media.
Alex O'Keefe, who is Black, said in an Instagram post that he was headed to Connecticut on a Metro-North train Thursday when he was removed by police after a white woman complained to a conductor about the way he was sitting.
Responding to questions about O'Keefe's video, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said security video showed he had been sitting with both legs stretched across an adjacent seat — a violation of the rail line's rules. The MTA said a conductor called police after the passenger refused to move his legs.
Police briefly held the train at a station in the Bronx around 10:30 a.m. The MTA said officers handcuffed O'Keefe after he refused to exit the train. O'Keefe recorded part of the interaction.
“You’re going to arrest the one Black dude on the train, because this white woman said she didn’t like the way I was sitting on the train," O'Keefe told officers in the video as he points to the woman. He then says three times that he didn't do anything illegal. An officer then begins to put handcuffs on O'Keefe and another tells him to stop resisting.
“Resisting what? Resisting what? What are you trying to arrest me for?” he says. The video ends shortly after.
O’Keefe posted another video taken by a bystander that shows him facing a wall in handcuffs on the train platform as officers question him.
The officers gave O’Keefe a summons accusing him of disorderly conduct, then allowed him to board another train to his destination, the MTA said.
MTA Chairman Janno Lieber was asked about the incident during a news conference on a different subject Monday. He said it was a simple case of a passenger breaking the rules by putting his legs on a seat.
“The police have to get involved because somebody won’t take his feet off the seat?” Lieber said, later adding, “Just take your feet off the seat. It’s that simple. And respect other passengers. But we’ll take a look at the video and deal with all the dramas that seem to come out of these simple interactions these days.”
O'Keefe, 31, won a 2023 Writers Guild Award with other writers as “The Bear” was named best comedy series.
O'Keefe said in an email to The Associated Press on Monday that he was working and needed to run an interview request by his legal team. He added that he was “wary of being the center of a culture war in this political climate."
FILE - A train operator watches a train at the Fordham Metro North station Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)
MALE, Maldives (AP) — Finnish divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the four remaining Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll in the Maldives, an official said.
The bodies were located on Monday, when searches resumed after being suspended following the death of a local military diver during a perilous mission to try to reach them.
Five Italian divers went missing on Thursday, with one of the bodies recovered earlier. The plan is to recover the remaining two bodies on Wednesday.
The announcement that two bodies were recovered on Tuesday was made by presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef.
Maldives government spokesman Ahmed Shaam had earlier said that the three Finnish divers would retrieve the bodies, which were lying at a depth of around 60 meters (200 feet). The legal depth for recreational diving in the Maldives is 30 meters (nearly 100 feet).
The government of the Indian Ocean island nation on Monday said that the bodies were spotted in the innermost part of the cave by the three Finnish diving experts, supported by the Maldives police and the military.
“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” Shaam said.
He said that the four bodies were found “pretty much together."
The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which deployed the three Finnish divers, said on its website that they are technical and cave divers with international experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.”
The team used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for “significantly longer dives,” the organization said.
The body of a fifth Italian — a diving instructor — was found earlier outside the cave on the day they were reported missing. The five were exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
Initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared.
In this handout photo release by Maldives President Media Division, a Finnish diver gets ready to attempt to recover the bodies of two of the four Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll earlier this month, at Alimathaa Island, in Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Maldives President Media Division via AP)
In this handout photo release by Maldives President Media Division, a Finnish diver, left, gets ready to attempt to recover the bodies of two of the four Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll earlier this month, at Alimathaa Island, in Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Maldives President Media Division via AP)
This image released by the Maldives President's Media Division, shows divers preparing to search for the four missing Italian divers near Alimathaa Island, Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Saturday, May 15, 2026. (Maldives President's Media Division via AP)
