Former ‘The Bear’ writer allegedly removed from MTA train after complaint from white passenger

Alex O’Keefe says he was targeted and handcuffed after an elderly white woman complained about how he was sitting on a train.

Alex O’Keefe, a former writer for the Emmy-winning FX series “The Bear,” says he was handcuffed and escorted off a train to Connecticut last week after a white woman complained about the way he was sitting.

The 31-year-old Black writer recounted the incident on social media, posting videos of his confrontation with Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) police. According to O’Keefe, the ordeal began when “an old white woman got on the train and immediately pointed at me and told me to correct how I was sitting.” When he refused, she went to the conductor, who then contacted the police. While waiting for the police to arrive, O’Keefe recalled the old woman’s friend saying, “You’re not the minority anymore.”

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Authorities confirmed that MTA police responded to a complaint of a disorderly passenger at Fordham Metro-North station in the Bronx on Thursday, per ABC News. Officers allege O’Keefe had his feet on a second seat, refused to comply when asked to move, and defied repeated orders to exit the train. Police say he was handcuffed and removed after delaying service for several hundred riders for about six minutes. He was issued a summons for disorderly conduct but was not formally arrested. According to MTA rules of conduct, passengers may be fined $50 for occupying more than one seat. Riders who ignore a violation notice are subject to ejection.

Though authorities say the officers’ body cam “footage is not available,” a video shared by O’Keefe shows officers attempting to restrain him as he pointed to the elderly woman nearby. “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,” he is heard saying in the video.

O’Keefe told his followers that officers never spoke to the woman who filed the complaint. Instead, he says, they pulled him off the train, handcuffed him, and detained him before allowing him to board the next one. “They just saw the Black guy and they arrested me,” he said in a video showing him outside the station. 

“Only black folks stayed nearby and recorded the arrest,” he noted in the post’s caption. “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?”

The incident echoes a viral TikTok sound that says, “When you’re Black, you’re never really lonely, because there will always be a white person all up in your business.” For many Black people, O’Keefe’s experience feels like an all-too-familiar reminder of how ordinary behavior can be policed differently when filtered through the lens of bias.