A road rage incident turned deadly when a man quarreling with another driver Wednesday in Manhattan was mowed down and killed after whipping out a knife and slashing the tires of his rival’s car, according to police and witnesses.
A fender bender, described by a police source as a “love tap,” between a gray Chevy Silverado and a gray Volkswagen Jetta sparked the violence on E. 60th St. between Park and Lexington Aves. on the Upper East Side at about 4 p.m.
“It was a scrape,” said a police source. “It was a love tap. You could barely see the damage.”
The 54-year-old driver of the Silverado pickup got out of his vehicle with a knife near the Oxford Cafe mid-block on E. 60th and started stabbing the rear tires of the Volkswagen that had bumped him, as captured by surveillance video seen by the Daily News.
The girlfriend and three children of the Jetta driver were in the car when it was attacked.
The knife-wielding attacker then walked around to the front of the Volkswagen sedan and faced the driver.
That’s when the 26-year-old Volkswagen driver put it in drive and ran him down, hurling him through the front window of the East Side eatery.
Tailor Jorge Hernandez was returning to his shop above the Oxford when he witnessed the attack.
“There was a crash into the cafe,” he said. “The gentleman was on the floor. I can’t believe he ran him down.”
The Jetta driver, a former White Castle worker who is not currently employed, continued forward, pinning the man under the car.
“He was yelling at the guy under the car,” Hernandez said. “He was under the bumper from the chest down. He was still conscious. He was trying to reach for his cell phone.”
A group of people helped lift the car off the man and pulled him out, Hernandez said.
The victim was taken to Weill Cornell Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver of the Jetta was taken into police custody, but he has not yet been charged.
The three children in the Volkswagen — two girls 8 and 6 and…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply