Good Samaritans were caught on camera dragging a naked man out of a stolen taxi cab in Rittenhouse Square Monday afternoon.
Police say the ordeal began around 3:30 p.m. at 2000 Locust Street when Michael Emanual, a cab driver, dropped a woman off. As the woman got out of the cab, an unidentified man began to attack her, according to investigators.
"He grabbed the lady from the hair and the collar and he dragged her on the street," Emanual said.
When Emanual got out of his taxi to help the woman the suspect ran into the cab and drove off, police said.
"Before jumping in the cab, you know, he just took off his clothes," Emanual said.
Brandon Thompson told NBC10 he was walking through Rittenhouse Square with his friends when he saw the suspect drive the stolen cab through the park.
"We hear like a loud screeching," Thompson said. "As we turned we noticed there was a cab coming through the park."
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Police say the suspect struck three parked vehicles.
"Everybody starts to run and everything and then that's when I hop on my bike and I tell my friends, 'I gotta go after him because I gotta stop him and everything,'" Thompson said.
Thompson said he rode after the speeding taxi cab which crashed into a high curb at 18th and Walnut streets. Thompson caught up to the vehicle and grabbed the steering wheel in an effort to stop the suspect.
"When I first ran up on him he was trying to fight me off and everything," Thompson said. "I had to punch him so I could get a hold of him and everything."
Viewer video obtained by NBC10 shows the suspect hitting the gas as Thompson holds onto the steering wheel. The taxi cab then hits a curb and spins out of control as smoke rises and more Good Samaritans run over to help.
"Once we got him to a stop I was messing with the keys so the car wasn't running anymore," Thompson said. "I'm trying to yank the keys out. That's when everybody pulled him out of the car."
Video shows the residents dragging the man out of the cab. Thompson says the suspect was completely naked.
"He was completely nude," Thompson said. "He had nothing on him but what God gave him."
Responding police officers arrested the man and took him to Hahnemann Hospital. The woman who was attacked is expected to be okay.
