Access-A-Ride driver arrested for brutal attack on 78-year-old woman
The Access-A-Ride driver who allegedly dragged a 78-year-old woman out of his vehicle and tried to rob her in a caught-on-camera attack in Brooklyn has been arrested, police said.
Elsakran Mohamed, 46, of Bay Ridge, was busted by the NYPD on Saturday and charged with attempted robbery, vehicular assault and grand larceny over last Wednesday’s incident where he was also filmed running over a good Samaritan.
Mohamed was caught on video yanking Catherine Shine out of his car by her leg and tossing her on the street as she tried to fend him off with her cane on East 35th Avenue in Marine Park, according to officials.
The suspect then got back into the car and drove it into Ezra Halawani, a 35-year-old man who filmed the disturbing incident and came to Shine’s aide, police said.
“Are you OK?,” Halawani asked after he was hit by Mohamed as he tried to stop him from fleeing, according to the footage.
“No, I’m not!” Shine said as she sat in the street with her sandals knocked off.
“I’m a 78-year-old lady and he threw me out of the cab, he took my money, he took my phone!”
“First instinct was to pull out my phone and start recording,” Halawani told The Post last week, his right arm in a sling the day after the accident.
“When I realized it was an elderly woman, I came to help her out, see what was going on.”
Shine had called the Access-A-Ride to get to a therapy appointment, her daughter said.
“She was on her way to physical therapy, she wasn’t expecting this,” the woman told The Post.
The NYS Federation of Taxi Drivers had also identified Mohamed as the driver and called for his Taxi and Limousine Commission driving privileges to be immediately suspended or revoked.
“The video is brutal and shows no compassion or respect for the elderly,” the group said in a statement. “Mohamed’s actions will not be tolerated, there is NOTHING that can justify throwing an elderly women [sic] out of a car and into the street,” it said in a statement.
Mohamed’s license has since been suspended, according to transportation sources.
