Police responding to a car accident in Brownsville yesterday evening made a horrifying discovery: the driver of a crashed livery cab was gushing blood from a stab wound to the eye. The unidentified man was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced DOA. Investigators now believe he was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella during a robbery.
According to witnesses, the driver tried to drive away after getting stabbed shortly after 5:30 p.m., but crashed a block away, across the street from a schoolyard where children were playing. “I was cooking in kitchen and I heard a loud bang, so I ran to my window. I saw the cabdriver bleeding like crazy. His face was full of blood,” neighbor Lena Taylor tells the Post. "I called 911 and they arrived fast and cut him out of the car. He already looked dead."
A man and a woman were seen fleeing the vehicle moments before the crash, New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers President Fernando Mateo tells NY1. He added that the driver's ID was missing when he was found.
The livery cab drivers union has offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the stabbing. Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.
