Car theft vic clings to life
Jumps on roof of vehicle to stop teen crooks & is badly hurt
A 28-year-old man is fighting for his life after he was badly hurt trying to thwart three kids who stole his car in Queens, police said Tuesday.
Tauree Thompson was hanging on to the roof of his 2006 Lexus when the crooks slammed into a fire hydrant and flipped the vehicle.
The mayhem began when the teen crooks approached Thompson, who was standing outside his idling vehicle near the Taco Bell on Liberty Ave. near 120th St. in South Ozone Park around 9:45 p.m. on Monday, cops said.
The trio jumped into the Lexus and took off but not before the victim, who lives about a half mile away, jumped onto the vehicle’s roof.
With the victim still clinging to the roof frame, a witness said the crooks swerved in an effort to shake Thompson off the car. Instead, it crashed less than 200 feet away on Lefferts Blvd. between Liberty Ave. and 103rd Ave., cops said
In graphic video obtained by the Daily News, Thompson is seen hurtling from the hood of the car while the driver spins out of control.
“My friends went up to talk to him, but when I saw the blood I just stepped away ’cause I can’t really see stuff like that,” said a witness who only wanted to be identified as Kevin D. “My friend was talking to him ’cause he kept on breathing, blood was coming from his mouth.”
As the Lexus lay on its side, the crooks shimmied out of the driver’s side door — which opened up to the sky.
“It was like a movie,” said Kevin D. “They opened the door and just jumped out one by one, and one of them almost got hit by a car trying to run away.”
“They were little,” he added. “They were basically little kids.”
The crooks ran off, but police quickly nabbed two of them, both 15. Medics rushed Thompson to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition.
“We’re hoping for the best,” the man’s concerned friend and neighbor, who only wanted to be identified as Gigi, told the Daily News. “The last thing that they told us when we were at the hospital is that the meds were helping.”
Once Thompson’s mother got word of her son’s serious injuries, she rushed to the city from Florida, according to the friend.
Thompson’s cousin, who Gigi said is like a sibling to the victim, is also with his mother as doctors closely monitor his condition.
“He’s heavily loved — he has a big family,” said Gigi, 30. “I want to be positive ’cause that’s how he would be in this situation. I feel like he’s a fighter, he has a purpose here on this Earth.”
Thompson works full time at home and delivers food for DoorDash at night. Friends and family believe he was making deliveries when the teens ambushed him.
“I don’t know what to say,” Gigi said of his decision to hop on the hood of the car. “He needed his car for work, I kind of understand.
“I can only imagine what was probably going through his head at that moment,” she added.
Thompson is also a musician, according to his friend. “He’s very full of life and positive,” Gigi said. “He’s a loving person, he really loves his dog. He just has great energy about him.”
Charges against the teens were pending Tuesday evening.
“It’s hard to wrap your mind around,” Gigi said of the young crooks. “You want to be sympathetic ’cause they’re minors, but also, what would possess them to take a car? Do they even know how to drive?
“I’m still taking it in,” she added. “It’s like a series of unfortunate events.”