A New York City cab driver was attacked by a mob of fans outside Madison Square Garden following the Knicks' playoff win, in an assault that has since drawn a wave of public support. Video captured the crowd smashing in the front windshield and hood of his taxi as the celebration spilled into the streets. An online fundraiser launched to help him has already blown past its initial goal.
Speaking through a translator, the driver said he was scared he would lose his life during the attack. He described being stopped at a red light at 7th Avenue and 36th Street at the end of game four of the finals, just after the Knicks' historic comeback win, when fans turned on his cab and began damaging it.
The driver, a 59-year-old man, is an Arabic language elementary school teacher originally from Algeria and a father of three. He said members of the crowd grabbed him by the neck and someone punched him in the head. Rowdy fans even tried to tip the cab over and set it on fire before officers arrived at the scene.
He ended up in the hospital, suffering a dizzy spell, ongoing back pain and broken glasses. Surrounded by his colleagues from the Taxi Workers Alliance in Long Island City, Queens, he recounted the ordeal, saying he was shocked by what had happened and by how quickly the celebration had turned violent.
Help arrived from an unexpected source. With a boost from a social media post by rapper French Montana, who was born in Morocco and raised in the Bronx, a GoFundMe page raised about 68,000 dollars to support the driver after his loss of income. "When we lose one day, we lose money, because we don't have anything that backs us up," he said.
Police have arrested a 21-year-old man, Saul Vargas, who turned himself in on Monday. He was one of three suspects captured on camera damaging the cab. Investigators have continued working to identify and locate the others believed to have taken part in the destruction of the vehicle that night.
The driver said he no longer wants to be a cab driver after what he went through. Mayor Zohran Mamdani called and spoke with him, and the mayor's office said it is now working with his union to help get him some groceries as he recovers from the attack and its aftermath.