NEW YORK CITY — A viral video shows a screaming elderly woman being violently dragged out of a cab in Brooklyn by a driver, who then drove into a good Samaritan.
“I’m a 78-year-old lady, and he threw me out of the cab, he took my money, he took my phone,” the woman said in the video circulating on Twitter.
A bystander-turned-good Samaritan captured the shocking incident Wednesday at East 35th Street and Flatlands Avenue, according to Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol, which posted the video.
The safety patrol identified the driver as a for-hire New York City taxi driver.
A subsequent ABC7 report stated the woman, 78, requested an Access-A-Ride vehicle to make it to a physical therapy appointment.
But the driver drove past the drop-off spot in Marine Park and refused to stop, prompting an argument with the woman, according to the ABC7 report.
The video apparently picks up at the dispute’s tail end, as the driver dragged the woman — who can be seen swinging her cane at him — from the cab as a bystander walks up.
“Guys, guys, what’s going on?” the video-taking bystander said, according to longer footage tweeted by a local reporter.
“Call the police. He robbed my phone,” the woman said in the video.
“Can you give her the phone?” the man asked the driver, who appeared to hold the phone as he walked back to the car. “This is an old woman.”
The good Samaritan rushed up to the car’s window as the driver got behind the wheel.
“You’re going to have to run over me,” the good Samaritan, right before he shouted as the driver apparently drove his car into him.
After the driver sped away, the man walked up to help the woman and return her phone, which he managed to grab in the brouhaha, the video shows.
Both the woman and man were injured and taken to the hospital, according to the safety patrol and ABC7.