Friends Put Up Money to Find Cabbie's Throat Slasher

Shaun McDonel was attacked Thursday while dropping off a fare.

The reward money is growing to help find whoever slashed a Camden County cab driver's throat and stole his money at the end of a ride on Thursday. Friends and the cab company have raised $3,000 to give to whoever helps find and convict the attacker.

Lindenwold Taxi driver Shaun McDonel was viciously attacked by a rider he picked up in the ShopRite along Blackwood-Clementon Road in Blackwood, N.J. The attack happened when McDonel got near the entrance to The Club apartments in Deptford, N.J., around 3 a.m., police say.

The suspect slashed the 28-year-old's throat, started to make a run for it, turned back to take $100 in cash and then fled, police say.

Fellow cabbie Steve Moser came to McDonel's aid after McDonel he radioed for help.

"He was out of the car standing on the curb and he had pulled his shirt up around his neck and he was absolutely covered in blood," he said.

Victoria Barney, a nurse technician who lives in the complex, also rushed to help the bloodied man.

"It's kind of an unknown when you're sitting in that situation you see that there's blood everywhere, but you don't know what's going to happen," she said.

McDonel was rushed to Copper University Hospital and placed in a medically induced coma for some time and now remains in the trauma intensive care unit in critical condition, his family says.

"My son is fighting for his life over $100," McDonel's mother, Susan said.

McDonel's friends call him a big guy with a big heart and say he'd never hurt anyone.

"He's fierce looking, but he's as soft as a teddy bear. He would never hurt a fly," Tim Cambell said.

Campell said McDonel, whose birthday was Saturday, recently talked about changing jobs.

"He was afraid it was getting too dangerous with all of the nighttime runs from the local bars and shadier areas around Camden County," Cambell said.

McDonel's mother says she can't understand what kind of person could do such a thing to her son.

"What's goes around comes around and they're going to find you and when they find you you're going to pay for what you did to my boy," the mother angrily declared.

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