Man Stabbed Lyft Driver, Passenger With Screwdriver In Clark: CPD

CLARK, NJ — A Bloomfield man who stabbed a Lyft driver and a passenger with a screwdriver in the head and face in Clark early Wednesday morning was arrested by police, Clark Police Chief Pedro M. Matos said.

At around 1 a.m. on April 24, Clark Police Officers found a 47-year-old man lying in the middle of Westfield Avenue bleeding from stab wounds and lacerations to his head, face and neck. A 20-year-old woman was also located on Westfield Avenue suffering from stab wounds and lacerations to her face and head, Matos said.

The man was found to be a Lyft driver and the woman was an occupant in the car. They had both been victims of an unprovoked attack by a third occupant in the car as it was driving through Clark, Matos said.

The Lyft driver had picked up the woman and a man from the Bloomfield area. They were going to Rahway when the man, later identified as Farrakhan S. Howard, 27, of Clifton Street in Bloomfield, allegedly began attacking both victims with a screwdriver, Matos said.

Howard then allegedly took the Lyft vehicle and fled the scene before getting into an accident on the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge, Matos said.

Woodbridge Police arrested Howard and both victims were transported to University Hospital in serious condition.

Howard has been charged with first-degree carjacking, second-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree aggravated assault, third-degree possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes and fourth-degree possession of a weapon.

He was also charged with receiving stolen property, obstruction and narcotics possession in Woodbridge and is currently remanded to the Middlesex County Jail and will be held pending a bail hearing.

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