What to Know
- Taxi drivers are outraged after an Uber driver was beaten by his own customers
- Police released video they said shows an alcohol-fueled scuffle between the passengers
- Police sources said at one point a passenger sucker punched the driver
Video released by the NYPD shows the alcohol-fueled scuffle between several irate Uber passengers in early February.
The driver, Mohammed Al-Gahaffi, pulled over in the Upper East Side after he spotted the passengers drinking during the ride, police said.
Off camera, police said one of the passengers sucker punched the driver.
Al-Fahaffi has spent 25 days hooked up to a ventilator at Weill Cornell Hospital.
Detectives released photos of the people involved with hopes of identifying who threw the brutal punch.
A punch felt across the world in Ethiopia, where his nephew said the driver's family has been worried about his condition.
News
Drivers gathered outside the hospital on Sunday, lamenting about the dangerous working conditions of a driver. Uber rolled out a safety initiative last year after a report showed 19 Uber drivers across the U.S. were attacked and killed.
"Today there's a lot of uncertainty if you don't get robber, you get assaulted," said Fernando Mateo with the Taxi Drivers Federation.
