CBS2 Exclusive: Cab Driver Stabbed In Queens In Apparent Road Rage Encounter
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A cab driver was recovering Thursday night from multiple stab wounds, after an apparent road rage encounter.
As CBS2's Valerie Castro reported exclusively, the driver said a confrontation over an alleged traffic mistake around 8 a.m. Tuesday had him fearing for his life.
"Three cuts are right here. There's another minor one in the back," said stabbing victim Gagan Dhillon.
Dhillon has a handful of stab wounds and slashes in his shoulder after a road rage incident he said he never saw coming.
"This was extreme," he said. "Like you know, you do see words now and then with other people. You stay in the car. Nobody comes lunging at you with a, you know, knife."
Dhillon is a yellow cab driver and was behind the wheel of a taxi in Astoria, Queens when he stopped at a red light near 30th Drive.
That was when he noticed the driver of a dark-colored Audi get out and approach his car.
"We were driving down Crescent Street, this guy pulls over and tells me I have cut him off," Dhillon said. "I might have, but I don't know."
Dhillon said the man first slashed a hole in the back tire of his cab, so he got out to take a picture of the man.
"The next thing I know is that he's coming at me with his knife," Dhillon said. "I thought he was just punching me. I did not realize that he has cut me up, like you know, he's stabbing me."
Dhillon said the man threatened to kill him.
"Exactly, these were his words – that he was going to kill me," he said.
After the assault, Dhillon said the man drove away. But he managed to get a picture of the car's license plate for police.
In his 10 years of driving a cab, Dhillon said he has never experienced such violence.
"It's a crazy, bad world we live in, and I wasn't careful enough," he said. "I should be more careful next time, and that's what I would tell everybody. You know, if something like this happens, stay in your car."
Police sources told CBS2 that investigators have identified the driver of the Audi. They were still trying to track him down to question him as of late Thursday.