‘I keep remembering those words.” - City driver speaks on knife attack by passenger

Adjetey says he took the man to three different addresses because he kept saying he was taken to the wrong destination, and threatened Adjetey's life if he wasn't taken to the right place.

News 12 Staff

Aug 20, 2020, 9:37 PM

Updated 1,506 days ago

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A driver whose face was sliced open by an angry passenger spoke out about his attack.
Raymond Adjetey is a 24-year-old immigrant from Ghana. He's pursuing a master's degree and says he drives for Lyft part-time.
Adjetey says on the night of Aug. 5 around 10:10 p.m., he picked up an angry passenger who was fighting with his girlfriend on the phone.
Adjetey says he took the man to three different addresses because he kept saying he was taken to the wrong destination, and threatened Adjetey's life if he wasn't taken to the right place.
Once they got to Tracey Towers, Adjetey says he threatened to call police. That was when he says the man told him, even if he got arrested, he would want to go to jail knowing he left a scar on his face.
After this threat, Adjetey says the passenger then sliced his face with a box cutter.
"So even now that I'm still healing, I keep remembering those words that he said that, 'I'll give you a mark that you forever remember.' It just got me depressed, and I'm so stressed from what he said to me," Adjetey says.
The driver had over 30 stitches removed from his face. However, the cut was so deep he says they had to use medical glue.
Fernando Mateo, of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, is asking for more cooperation from the NYPD to help catch the perpetrator faster.
"If we can get a description of this guy immediately after an incident like this happens, and we can get it to the TLC and they can notify all of the drivers in the area," he says.
The Taxi Limousine Commission told News 12, "The safety of TLC-licensed Drivers is our top priority, and we are in contact with the NYPD on this case.
Our drivers are amongst the hardest-working New Yorkers, and they deserve respect…We are incredibly saddened that Mr. Adjetey was attacked. Assaulting a driver is punishable by up to 25 years in prison and Mr. Adjetey's assailants, when found, should be held fully accountable for their vicious behavior."
A GoFundMe page has been created to help Adjetey cover the costs of a skin grafting procedure.
A spokesperson for Lyft told News 12, " the individual was not an active driver for Lyft, and this incident did not occur on the Lyft platform."