NEW YORK: A sixty-year-old Pakistani taxi driver was savagely beaten by a group of attackers in New York City after an argument.
The struggling immigrant taxi driver, Afzal Butt, was viciously beaten by a group of brutes in Manhattan on July 19. Afzal Butt suffered chest, neck, and face injuries in the shocking caught-on-camera beatdown.
Butt emigrated to the US from Pakistan and has been driving a taxi since 2004. Butt, who has two adult children and lives with his wife in Upper Manhattan, said he got into an argument with a group of five people on Sixth Avenue and West 34th Street on July 19.
Butt had been pulling over to clean up food that an unrelated crew of scooter drivers tossed into his car when the group accused him of nearly hitting them, he said.
“They were walking by and saying that I was going to run over them,” he said. “I was just trying to clean my car.”
“Then this lady and this boy started breaking my side window. She broke it. They started assaulting me,” he said, adding that three more people joined in. “They were all hitting me and kicking me, everywhere on my body, my face,” Butt said.
Disturbing video footage shows three women and two men punching the taxi driver and hitting him with a shoe as he falls to the ground. Butt is seen cowering next to his car and covering his face as a woman continues to kick him.
“My eye socket was swollen. I was dizzy and lightheaded,” the victim said. “There’s so much pain in my neck. I still can’t move my neck. My arms, my knees, my hips. My chest felt like I was getting pressure on my chest. So much pain.”
Butt was taken to a hospital, and two suspects — 35-year-old Howard Colley and 51-year-old Natalie Morgan — were arrested, according to police,
Police charged Colley with misdemeanor assault and Morgan was fined with criminal mischief. Both were issued desk-appearance tickets and let go because the charges were misdemeanors and the suspects had no serious criminal history.
Earlier last week, Afzal Butt told a local daily that he was appalled that two of his alleged assailants were issued a desk-appearance ticket and allowed to walk free.
“If they’re not going to put them behind bars, this is a horrible system,” fumed the taxi driver as he blasted New York’s lenient bail-reform laws. “I am hopeless and helpless with this system.” He added, “Send the mayor the video and tell him die with the shame.”
