ALyft driver was hospitalized Tuesday after his passenger repeatedly stabbed him in a botched robbery attempt in lower Manhattan — and then jumped right off FDR Drive, breaking both legs — cops and law enforcement sources said.
The 36-year-old victim was headed south on FDR Drive and approaching the Manhattan Bridge when his passenger pulled a knife at about 2:48 p.m. and tried to rob him of his car, cops and law enforcement sources said. A struggle between the two ensued, causing the driver to lose control of his Tesla before slamming into another car.
“We got rear-ended. The guys jump out. One was bleeding badly,” said Serge Velbovets, whose Nissan sedan was badly damaged in the fender bender. “He chased the other and grabbed him with both arms.”
Amid the chaos, the 20-year-old robber stabbed the Lyft driver multiple times, police and cop sources said.
“The driver was bad. He was bleeding from the right side of his chest,” said Yuliya Birbrayer, 48, who was riding shotgun in Velbovets’ car. “He couldn’t talk, but he managed to ask me to call his wife. She didn’t pick up.”
At one point, the stabber broke away and tried to hijack a car, said Velbovets, a union construction worker.
“He jumped in right through the driver’s side window. I looked in the driver’s side and both guys were wrestling. I shouted, ‘What’s going on here?!’” he recounted.
“He got scared and jumped out the passenger window. He ran down the highway looking for a way out, then he jumped,” he said.
In video viewed by the Daily News, the stabber first tossed his black knapsack from the FDR Drive overpass down to South St. near Rutgers Slip, a good 50 feet below.
Then, seeming to contemplate the jump, he sat on the ledge before dangling by two hands. Eventually he let go, plummeting to the street and breaking both his legs, law enforcement sources said.
“Boom! He hit his head. I thought he was done,” Velbovets said of the attacker. “But after a few moments,…
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