BROWNSVILLE — A cab driver was stabbed in the eye with an umbrella and killed in a brutal attack by an angry passenger in Brownsville, police sources said.
Orji-Ama Uro, 54, of Rosedale, Queens, was found inside his 2000 Mercury at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday by police responding to a report of a car accident at Lott Avenue and Thomas Boyland Street, officials said. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Police have a video showing two suspects, a man and a woman, getting out of the cab, according to police sources. The couple began to argue with the driver inside the cab at the scene, and got out of the cab, according to sources. The male passenger opened the passenger side front door, leans in, and stabbed the driver in the eye, sources said.
After the attack, the car was seen rolling slowly into parked vehicles, police sources said.
Uro had his wallet and his money still on him when he was found, leading police to believe it was not a robbery sources said.
The case is still under investigation, cops said. They have been speaking to multiple witnesses who said they saw the attack, sources said.
''He was a livery driver that should have not been killed the way he was killed. But it basically goes to show what a livery driver goes through every day," New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers president Fernando Mateo said at a press conference Friday,
"Livery drivers are very brave because every time they stop, a stranger gets in their car. They don't know what the intentions are," he added, "These are innocent people facing forward not knowing what's going on behind them until either you shoot them, murder them, rob them... It's a very dangerous job, a very dangerous business.''
Mateo's organization, along with Advocates Without Borders and 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement are offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspects, he said.
He added that the surveillance video shows a UPS truck behind the cab at the time of the attack, and urged the driver of that vehicle to come forward.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477).
