Photo by Gregory Bacon Henry Reese, who was injured during an attack on Aug. 12, 2022 at Chautauqua Institution, talks to the media after testifying in Chautauqua County Court Thursday.

MAYVILLE – While Salman Rushdie suffered nearly fatal wounds on Aug. 12, 2022, while at Chautauqua Institution, he was not the only person injured that day.

On Thursday, Henry Reese took the stand and described both the attack and injuries he personally sustained.

Reese said he and Rushdie were going to hold a conversation on stage regarding City of Asylum Pittsburgh when he heard a noise and saw a man running over to Rushdie, who was seated separately on stage.

Reese said at first he didn’t think the individual was an attacker. “When I first saw it I thought it was a prank. I thought maybe it was one of those Will Smith kind of things,” he said, referencing when the actor Will Smith slapped fellow comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars earlier that spring.

But he quickly realized this was no joke. “At some point it became real and I got up and tried to stop the attacker,” he said.

Reese said the attacker was moving his arms back and forth, while grunting. He initially thought the person was punching Rushdie, but when he saw blood he realized that this person was using more than just his hands.

Reese remembers getting up and trying to stop the attacker. He initially wanted to tackle the attacker, and eventually grabbed his legs. “I didn’t have a lot of leverage,” he said.

Reese ended up being injured in the attack. At first he didn’t realize he had been hurt. “I didn’t feel much in the beginning,” he said.

But soon a sharp pain was in his right eye. A photograph taken the next day showed Reese with a fully black eye.

Eventually the suspect was subdued by the crowd. Reese said some people had told him that he was bleeding from the area of his eye.

He was taken by ambulance to UPMC Hamot Hospital in Erie, where he learned that the eye did not sustain any long-term damage.

The entire time Reese was questioned, his alleged attacker, Hadi Matar, looked down at his notepad. He never appeared to try to look up at Reese, the attorneys or the jury who will eventually decide his fate.

Matar, a New Jersey native, has been charged with second-degree attempted murder in regard to the attack on Rushdie and second-degree assault in regards to the injuries sustained by Reese.

Reese is a co-founder of City of Asylum, which provides sanctuary in Pittsburgh to writers exiled under threat of persecution. He and Rushdie were to have a conversation about the City of Asylum before the attack.

Rushdie is a world renowned author of several books, including “The Satanic Verses,” which was published in 1988. “The Satanic Verses” has been banned in Iran since it was published, as many Muslims consider it to be blasphemous. A year after it was banned, Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death.

After Reese spoke in court Thursday, he made himself available to the media present.

Reese said the attack has only inspired the City of Asylum to continue its work. “It strengthened our determination to do what we do in the City of Asylum in protecting the freedom of expression. It also reminded us how important it was to build community around those values of hospitality, receptions open to other opinions – being able to recognize that the way to sustain a good civic society is to be tolerant, to be able to recognize that you’re not the only opinion, necessarily, but that you sustain the values of empathy and understanding that reading literature inculcates you in life,” he said.

A year after the attack, Reese said he returned to Chautauqua Institution but was without Rushdie, who said he wasn’t ready.