He used to chauffeur celebrities around Manhattan. But after a brutal attack by a group of belligerent passengers, Uber driver Mohammed Al-Gahaffi is clinging to life.
Police are still looking for the five passengers who attacked him — and on Sunday friends of Al-Gahaffi and advocates offered a $5,000 cash reward for information that leads to their arrest.
The veteran livery driver was working for Uber when he took the group on a long-haul trip from Privileged Gentlemen’s Club in Queens to Second Ave. and E. 62nd St. on the Upper East Side early Feb. 5 .
The passengers got into an argument with Al-Gahaffi, 54, at the end of the ride, about 4:30 a.m.. The fight quickly escalated and spilled onto the sidewalk, and Al-Gahaffi was punched in the face and knocked to the ground.
Cops on Friday released surveillance images of two women and three men suspected in the attack, but no arrests have been made.
Al-Gahaffi has been hospitalized since in critical condition with a cracked skull and bleeding in his brain. Members of his family said doctors had to remove a piece of his skull due to swelling in his brain.
“He started to move his arms and started to move his legs and to make gestures,” said Mohammed Al-Gahefi,the victim’s nephew, who shares his uncle’s name. “Whenever we say ‘You’re OK’ he gives us a thumbs up.”
Al-Gahaffi’s ex-wife Mary Rosado, 55, said police have given her little information about the assailants — but said she was told a sixth suspect has been cooperating with the cops.
Police are investigating whether the fight was over the fare, sources said.
Uber spokesman Navideh Forghani said the rider who requested the ride from Al-Gahaffi has been banned from the app and that the company is cooperating with police investigators to track down the suspects.
Al-Gahaffi has driven cabs and for-hire vehicles in the city for more than 30 years, a career that included a stint at the black car livery company BLS Limo in the 1990s, his ex-wife said.
He regularly caught fares from notable celebrities like the rapper DMX and Angela Bassett, Rosado said.
“Anytime he had a celebrity he would tell me, ‘Guess who’s in my car,’ ” Rosado said. “The one thing he always respected was people’s privacy. He would tell me he was driving them, but he would never tell me what they talked about. I know he did get a few autographs.”
Al-Gahaffi, a Yemeni immigrant, left the black car business and became a yellow cab driver in the early 2000s, Rosado said. A decade later he switched over to Uber to make his living.
The Yemeni American Merchants Association put up the cash reward for information on the suspects. The group’s co-founder Debbie Almontaser said Al-Gahaffi has a 21-year-old daughter who is a refugee in Ethiopia after fleeing war-torn Yemen.
Al-Gahaffi was working to save money to get his daughter to the U.S., but was having difficulties securing a visa for her, said the association’s executive director, Abraham Ay-ash.
“Think about going out and trying to make a living and in doing that, it almost cost you your life,” Ay-ash said.
