Man Stabs Lyft Driver Before Jumping Off FDR Drive, Hit With Attempted Murder Charge
On Tuesday, July 11th, twenty year-old Ismael English went on a crime spree on the FDR Drive, viciously stabbing his Lyft driver and attempting to commandeer several other vehicles. He tried to jump off the highway in an escape attempt, only to break both his legs and face arrest for charges including attempted murder.
| 13 Jul 2023 | 01:53
On July 11th, at around 2:30 p.m., a 20 year-old man named Ismael English viciously stabbed a Lyft driver ferrying him southbound down the FDR Drive. He then continued a sensational crime spree that ended in an ultimately unsuccessful high-wire escape attempt.
The 36 year-old rideshare driver transporting English was nearing the Manhattan Bridge exit in his Tesla before the assault, and suffered injuries in his shoulder, arm, and chest. After being incapacitated by the stabbing, he crashed the vehicle into a Nissan sedan before passing out, at which point English hopped out to flee the scene.
English attempted to commandeer multiple cars on the highway, ostensibly looking for a getaway vehicle. He crawled through the open window of a white sedan, but clearly failed in getting the owner to hand over the wheel. Footage from ABC7 showed that English, in a desperate last-ditch effort, gave up on trying to steal a car and was perched on the lip of the parkway near the Rutgers Slip road. It was almost a 30 foot drop, or nearly 3 stories high. He jumped.
Emergency medical services arrived to find English with two broken legs. He was taken into custody and charged with attempted murder, attempted robbery, four counts of reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of a weapon. According to the NYPD, the Lyft driver he stabbed was whisked by EMS to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue, where he is currently in stable condition. Both the victim and his assailant ended up being treated in the same hospital.