NYPD: Ride-share driver stabbed by passenger on FDR Drive
NEW YORK -- A stabbing suspect leapt nearly three stories off the FDR Drive to escape police, moments after allegedly stabbing a ride-share driver on Tuesday afternoon.
The wild scene ended with the man jumping from an overpass on the Lower East Side.
"You don't see these things every day," witness Mariano Velez said.
Police say the man who jumped was a passenger in a Lyft car. They say just before 3 p.m. he tried robbing his 36-year-old driver in the vicinity of Rutgers Street as they rode along the FDR, and then he stabbed the driver several times.
"I guess he realized he wasn't going to take the car and take the money, so best thing he could do was try to get away," said Fernando Matteo of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
The passenger jumped out of the Lyft and cellphone video shows him roaming around the FDR, seemingly looking for another car to make his getaway.
At one point, he is seen diving through the open window of a passing car, before that driver stops short and kicks him out.
"I saw the guy tried to, when he get into the car, he tried to fight to get to the wheel," Velez said.
Meanwhile, the ride-share driver was still bleeding in his Tesla from three stab wounds, to his shoulder, arm and chest.
"I was talking to the driver while he was waiting for the ambulance and he was saying that he was one of his passenger, the guy who tried to skip," Velez said.
After running around the highway, the footage shows the passenger eventually scoop up his bag and run toward the ledge.
First, he drops his backpack, nearly hitting three women walking below, and then he slowly pushes his weight over and lets go.
Not long after landing, police took him into custody.
"An idiot. Really, someone that's just dumb, stupid, desperate," Matteo said.
Sources told CBS New York the 20-year-old passenger lost some teeth and broke several bones in the fall. Both he and the driver were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The driver was said to be stable and awaiting surgery.