CBS 2 Exclusive: Taxi Driver Goes To Extremes To Escape Thief
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A suspected carjacker was caught on video early Monday, as he clung to the side of a taxi while it sped down the Bruckner Expressway in the Bronx.
As CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reported, it looked like a high-speed chase out of an action movie, but the man clinging onto the cab was no stunt double. Police said he was a real-deal criminal hanging onto Mohammed Millogo's cab.
"I was caring if he has a knife or if he has a gun," Millogo said.
Police said the man is Matthew McCorkle, 26, of the Bronx. Investigators believe he tried to carjack the taxi around 2 a.m. Monday on the expressway at 138th Street, but the driver hit the gas.
Watch the raw video below.
"He tried to hit my window with his elbow then he tried to break in and get in the car and he told me to open the door and I said, 'No, I cannot open the door for you,'" Millogo said.
Millogo told CBS 2's Kathryn Brown he was concerned about his own safety.
"Then I called the police and even I slowed down for him because I don't want him to get hurt," Millogo said.
A video shows the suspect struggling to stay perched on the running boards, with his feet falling off and dragging the ground.
The man nearly lost his grip, but managed to stay on.
"I was, like, really nervous," said witness Vlane Carter. "I didn't know what to think."
Carter saw it all from inside his car.
"I noticed the guy, like, kicking the window; he almost fell a couple times," Carter said. "I was really concerned with this guy's life. If he fell, he would have been instant roadkill."
Carter shot the video with his cell phone.
"Between 50 and 60 miles an hour and the taxi sped up to maybe 65, 70," he said. "I was, like, really getting nervous, because the guy was on the hood at this time, on the top of the car. Then he was on the back, then he was trying to break the glass with his hand, and then the car was swerving. So it was like a Hollywood movie, almost."
McCorkle allegedly hung on for eight miles along the Bruckner, until the cab hit a traffic jam on the New England Thruway.
Then, detectives said, McCorkle hopped off the taxi, carjacked another vehicle and pulled that driver from the car. But he crashed.
That was when police caught up to him.
"It could have been really bad," Carter said.
McCorkle has a long rap sheet that includes criminal possession of a stolen weapon, driving with a suspended license, and drug violations.
Just last month, he was arrested and accused of menacing and harassing a woman, authorities said.
In the incident involving the taxi, McCorkle was charged with driving while intoxicated, robbery, and grand larceny.
McCorkle was awaiting his arraignment at Bronx Criminal Court late Monday after a mental evaluation.
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