Outrage After Stolen Livery Cab Gets Ticket Hours After Driver Is Stabbed
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There is outrage from livery cab drivers after they say a ticket was found on the bloody car of a stolen livery cab hours after its driver was brutally attacked in Queens.
Driver Fernando Crespin is in critical condition after he was stabbed seven times by a passenger early Thursday morning, police said.
Just after 1 a.m., police said Crespin was dispatched to Hemlock Street and Jamaica Avenue in Brooklyn where he picked up 41-year-old Kenneth Suden, who asked to be taken to 68-16 60th Street in Ridgewood, Queens.
As they neared 60-19 70th Avenue, police said an argument ensued and Suden attacked Crespin, stabbing him in the torso, arm and hands.
"To take a knife and stab a man seven times trying to kill him is just beyond belief," New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers spokesman Fernando Mateo told CBS 2's Sonia Rincon.
Police said Suden then sped off in Crespin's livery cab, leaving the 30-year-old driver bleeding on the street.
"He ran a block, lost so much blood, fell to the ground in the middle of the street," Mateo said. "Saw oncoming traffic, raised his hand so that they don't run over him and what the people did was go around him and they just kept going. That's unheard of in New York. New Yorkers don't do things like that."
But there was a good Samaritan who helped Crespin and Mateo says the Federation would like to find him and give him a reward. That man saved Crespin's life by calling 911.
Hours later, Mateo said another livery driver found Crespin's car abandoned at a bus stop with a parking ticket on it. He said the car was covered with blood inside and out.
The ticket had been written Thursday morning for being at the bus stop, Rincon reported.
"What happened to 'If you see something say something?' The ticket was issued at 6 a.m., four hours after the stabbing which would have given NYPD a head start on tracking down the attacker," Mateo said in a statement. "The ticket writer should have noticed all the blood on the car and called 911 to reported [sic] the bloody cab to police."
Livery cab drivers were planning to hold a rally in Ridgewood later Friday to protest against the car being issued the ticket. Police said the ticket, which was issued by a traffic agent for no standing, has since been voided.
To that Mateo said 'Thanks, but no thanks.'
"When you're putting a ticket on a windshield you're looking through the windshield. There's no way that you could miss an open glove compartment, a radio, and two seats full of blood," Mateo said.
Meanwhile, police are still looking for Suden. Drivers said that they would like the police to find him before they do.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
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