By VANESSA THOMAS
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 A Buffalo cabbie is reliving the most terrifying moment of his life - the night a customer stabbed him three times.
The attack at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday by a knife-wielding fare seated in the back seat has left Liberty Cab driver Darin Richardson with gashes to the back of his head, shoulder and back.

When he felt the sharp blade piercing his flesh, he immediately thought that he was going to die.

"I came close to death," Richardson said. "I lost a lot of blood, and I thank God I made it home safely to my wife. [The attacker] had no regard for human life. Why would he stab me? He never even asked me for cash."

The stabbing on West Avenue has raised concerns about the dangers of a profession in which four drivers have been slain in the city over the past 16 years.

Richardson, 38, a married father of two, spent hours in the emergency room of Erie County Medical Center on Wednesday.

He is now recovering in his East Side home with a row of staples that closed a 3-inch gash on his back. He also has stitches on his head and shoulder for his puncture wounds. He is also taking prescription antibiotics and painkillers.

Buffalo police arrested a suspect at 5:30 a.m. - four hours after the stabbing.

Mikal N. Salahuddin, 27, a former Buffalo resident who lives in Erie, Pa., was charged with felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon by Officer Shawn Adams and Detective John Paradowski.

Police said they found him sleeping inside a locked Cold Spring Taxi in the 300 block of Northampton Street, a wood-handled knife with a silver blade at his side. "This highlights the dangers of the occupation of cab drivers," said Chief of Detectives Dennis J. Richards. "Fortunately for the cab driver, he was not more seriously injured."

At 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, Richardson was dispatched to an address in the 600 block of East Ferry Street to pick up a customer.

A man entered his cab, sat in the back seat directly behind Richardson and told him to drive to an address in the 600 block of West Avenue. Richardson complied. When he arrived at the address, he requested the fare - $9.90.

"He said, "No, this is the wrong address. You have to back up a little bit . . .,' " recalled Richardson. "The next thing I feel is this sharp object hitting my head. I realized it was knife and then the sharp object hit my shoulder. As I opened the door, he stabbed my back and just missed my lungs."

Richardson, 6-foot-2 and 270 pounds, slammed the door, jamming the attacker's head and shoulder in the door, and ran for safety.

"I think I stunned him long enough to get away," said Richardson, who was bleeding profusely as he hopped over a gate. "I lost a lot of blood. . . . "

Richardson ran through yards to Plymouth Avenue, where neighbors called 911 and applied a towel to his wounds. An ambulance eventually took him to the hospital.

Meanwhile, the assailant jumped into the driver's seat of the taxi, crashed it into two parked cars and fled. Police later recovered the cab.

Richardson, who has worked at Liberty for the past four months, said he plans to return to work. "I'm not going to let this . . . deter me from earning an honest living," he said. "I'll be back."

Cabbies are the frequent target of violent attacks and robberies. The most recent homicide of a driver was on Aug. 25, 2004, when Albert Craig was fatally shot. Craig, 59, who drove for Broadway Taxicab, was working the overnight shift when he was gunned down on Chester Street, near Woodlawn Avenue, just minutes after he picked up a fare.

William Yuhnke, president of Liberty and Yellow Cab of Buffalo, said his company uses advanced technology to help ensure the safety of drivers.

The company has a sophisticated caller identification system that allows them to pinpoint the location of the callers, he said. The company also has installed global-positioning systems in about 30 percent of its fleet of 96 cabs, allowing it to track their whereabouts. The entire fleet will have the system by the end of August.

"I'm glad that the police are taking this seriously because a lot of times they don't," said Yuhnke. "This sends a message to the people who do this and a message to the drivers that we care about them."

Yuhnke described Richardson as an upstanding citizen. "He's a real gentleman," he said. "He's a middle-age man just trying to support his family and his kids. We're all praying for him."

 http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20070301/1072048.asp