Police are hoping surveillance video and images will lead to an arrest in the case.
Mohammad Ali, 35, tells Eyewitness News reporter Tim Fleischer that he picked up the suspect around 2:00 a.m. last Saturday in Manhattan, but when they arrived in the Bronx, the journey turned violent.
Still feeling the pain of the vicious attack, Mohammad Ali revealed the serious knife slashes, he says, came at the hands of the passenger.
"Too much pain. I can't really sleep well," he said.
Ali picked up the man who wanted to go to the Bronx at the corner of Delancy and Ludlow Streets in the Bowery. The man was caught on security video when they stopped for cigarettes shortly after the ride began.
Later, along the Grand Concourse at 179th Street in the Bronx, Mohammad says he pulled to the curb after a disagreement over where the man wanted to go. He asked that the man to pay the fare.
"He was just counting money, and then he just slapped my face. He just slapped my face with the money, and then he get out of the car and he just smashed the windows," ali said.
He smashed several windows as Mohammad then got out of his cab.
"I told him you shouldn't do that. And he says what are you going to do? I said I am going to call the cops, and I called the cops," he said.
He says the suspect then began walking away while he waited for police, but then suddenly the man came back to confront Mohammad again.
"He takes out the knife and I was calling police. He takes out the knife, and then just hit me," Ali said. "He slashed me."
He was cut once on his hand and cut deeper on his back. The suspect then reached into the cab grabbed his money, and fled the scene where people had gathered, but no one came to help Ali.
"They were watching and they were even taking video and all that," he said.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, about 5-foot-9 and weighing approximately 180 pounds, with brown eyes, dark hair and a light complexion. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with information in regards to this robbery is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS.
