Cabbie's License Suspended After Pregnant Woman Is Allegedly Roughed Up
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Taxi and Limousine Commission announced Tuesday that it has suspended the license of a cab driver accused of throwing a pregnant woman out of his vehicle.
The commission told CBS2 that the license was suspended for driver Amin Jarjisu Issah in connection with the alleged incident last week.
As CBS2's Valerie Castro was the first to report Monday night on the story of Leslie Cooper, who claimed the driver's violent act caused her to deliver her baby five weeks early.
Cooper said it was a bitter cold night recently when she just wanted to get into a cab and go home to Brooklyn.
She said her cab driver told her his credit card reader was broken. She offered to stop for cash at an ATM in Brooklyn, but she said instead, he told her to get out.
She refused, and said the confrontation then got physical.
Cooper was already inside the yellow cab near 57th Street and Madison Avenue. In a surveillance video, the cab pulls up to the curb and the driver gets out, and minutes later, he walks to the back passenger door and appears to physically pull Cooper from the car.
She is pushed to the ground, and the driver takes off.
"I was just in shock -- complete shock," Cooper said. "I was really worried about my baby."
At more than eight months pregnant, Cooper said she went to the hospital to be checked out. She was cleared to go home, but a few days later, she went into early labor.
"It's a little heartbreaking," Cooper said. "But this is life, and I'm just trying to deal with it."
Cooper said she immediately filed a police report at the scene, but was told without visible physical injuries such as a bruise or a broken bone, no assault charges would be filed.
She said she told police about the surveillance video, but, "They said it wouldn't help their case, because again, I wasn't physically, visibly injured."
The NYPD later closed the case.
Meanwhile, Cooper's story has now reached the website "The Lil Mamas," a support site for mothers. The outrage on social media from the community of moms has stretched far and wide.
"I'm horrified. We're all horrified," said Celia Behar, the co-creator of the site. "I think about myself in that position, and it makes me so scared for other pregnant women that they're that vulnerable, and nobody is looking out for them."
Cooper said the cab driver also removed his identification card before pulling her out the back seat