On July 19, at about 8:00pm, police responded to the scene of five people punching and kicking a 60-year-old cab driver. Two people were promptly arrested, but officials were still searching for three more assailants as of late July. Howard Colley, 35, and Natalie Morgan, 51, were arrested near Sixth Avenue and West 34th Street. Colley was charged with assault while Morgan was charged with criminal mischief, according to NYPD officials.
Officials said the incident occurred after a dispute, causing the driver to pull over. As the taxi came to a stop, two people in the group broke the car’s sideview mirror, police said. The driver got out of his car and all five people began to punch and kick him. The struggling immigrant taxi driver, Afzal Butt, suffered chest, neck, and face injuries in the shocking, caught-on-camera beatdown.
Butt, who emigrated to the US from Pakistan and has been driving a taxi since 2004, has two adult children and lives with his wife in Upper Manhattan. He said he had been pulling over to clean up food that an unrelated crew of scooter drivers tossed into his car when the group accused him of nearly hitting them.
First responders brought the injured driver to NYU Langone Medical Center in stable condition, police said, while the three remaining suspects fled. Officials released images of the three other people they claim are connected to the incident.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, (888) 57-PISTA (74782).
Source: Patch Midtown, MM News
