A Bronx cab driver lost a thumb protecting three passengers from a vicious machete attack carried out by two teenagers.
The father-of-four was stopped at a red light when Juan Carlos Sanchez and Kenneth Guzman, both 17, ambushed his vehicle, police say.
Richard Deleon, 47, had his thumb hacked off while protecting his head before leaping to his passengers’ rescue – only to see one of his attackers released on $200 bail.
A Bronx cab driver lost a thumb protecting three passengers from a vicious machete attack carried out by two teenagers. Richard Deleon (pictured), 47, had his thumb hacked off protecting his customers from the teens
‘It happened very fast,’ Deleon said during a press conference on Sunday outside the Bronx district attorney’s office. ‘I tried to stop the attackers,’ the NYDailyNews reports.
Sanchez, armed with a machete, cut one of the passengers, before Deleon said he desperately pulled him away.
‘I raised my hand and they were aiming at my head with the machete and instead they took my (right thumb),’ he said in Spanish.
Despite being thankful to be alive, the cab driver said he is now depressed and in pain for his injuries.
Unable to return to work, his family are suffering too as he is unable to put food on the table.
One passenger needed 14 stitches after the attack, but it could have been far graver had Deleon not put their safety before his own, said Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
‘To us he is a hero because if it wasn’t for him and his intervention, God knows if someone would’ve been killed,’ he said.
The father-of-four was stopped at a red light when Juan Carlos Sanchez and Kenneth Guzman, both 17, ambushed his vehicle, police say. Deleon had his thumb hacked off protecting his head before leaping to his passengers’ rescue – only for one attacker to be released on $200 bond
Following the violent assault, Guzman was released on $200 bail – a decision greeted with disgust by Mateo and Deleon supporters.
‘He’s laughing at the justice system,’ Mateo said. ‘He’s laughing at the victims that he injured and this is something that we don’t know or understand how it could happen.’
After his release from jail, Mateo claimed Guzman posted on Facebook how happy he was to be home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Guzman in turn claims police are unfairly charging him and Sanchez – trying to make them look ‘like animals’ in a now deleted Facebook post that saw saved by Mateo.
It is claimed Guzman posted on Facebook how happy he was to be home for Thanksgiving dinner. Guzman in turn claims police are unfairly charging him and Sanchez – trying to make them look ‘like animals’ in a now deleted Facebook post that saw saved by Mateo
On Sunday, Deleon’s older sister, Fary, 48, said she’s happy her brother is still alive.
‘We just want justice,’ she said. ‘What they did to my brother is not fair. He was working. He didn’t hurt nobody.’
The teens, arrested close to the cab, face charges of assault and criminal possession of a weapon.