Taxi Driver Says He Was Assaulted By Customer With Knife

A taxi driver was severely wounded in the face and hands after a customer attacked him with a steak knife in Lilburn last week. 

According to the Lilburn police report, the taxi driver, a 41-year-old from Clarkston and an employee of Rapid Taxi, had been driving the customer around 5 a.m. to his temporary residence after drinking at the Pink Pony gentlemen's club. He and the customer, also 41 but from Santa Fe, N.M., started arguing about politics, specifically President Obama, according to the report. 

The driver told police that the argument escalated, and eventually the rider demanded that he be let out of the car. He told the customer that he would drop him off at a local gas station, but he still needed to pay for the fare so far.

The police report says that the customer started grabbing the keys while still in the ignition and while the car was being driven, causing the driver to wreck the car in the front yard of a residence.

The residence, located on the 300 block of Rockbridge Road, is where the New Mexico man put a knife to the driver's neck. 

The driver attempted to gain control of the knife, and he was successful once the fight moved outside of the car. The customer started biting his face and hand, however, and the driver cut him with the knife in self-defense. The customer continued to punch the Clarkston resident in the face and head.

The customer's son and another witness were able to pull the two apart and call 911. The son, whom the father called to pick him up at the Shell gas station on Rockbridge Road and Highway 29, said his father had told him the driver was acting fishy and also had a weapon. He said that when he found the two fighting, his father was on top of the driver and had been holding the driver's hand back, which had the knife in it. 

The other witness, who had been coming out of the Shell station, said he heard screaming and saw the cab drive erratically on the road and into the resident's yard. He told police that he went over to the accident site and as the driver climbed out of the car, he said, "He stabbed me, he stabbed me." 

Both the driver and the rider were tended to medical needs. The driver was transported to Emory Hospital because of his head injuries and facial wounds. The rider was told that he needed stitches, but did not require emergency care. 

The rider was arrested for both aggravated assault and aggravated battery and was transported to jail. 

When police had asked the rider for his side of the story, the suspect said that the driver had become disrespectful to America and started insulting Americans during their argument. The suspect claimed that the driver was the one that pulled out the kitchen knife and started to stab the rider. He said that any injuries the driver had were because of self-defense.