NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A cab driver crashed into his neighbor's home after he was shot during an attempted robbery.
Rebel Jean said he was returning home after work late Monday when someone tried to rob him in the driveway of his home at Northeast 145th Street and 7th Court in North Miami. The 68-year-old cab driver then crashed into a neighbor's house.
He spoke from his hospital bed Tuesday.
"Somebody followed me," said Jean. "Knocked on the window and said, 'Open the door' but I leave the door closed."
Jean said the robber then shot him in the arm.
"He shoot me. When he shoot me, I take off," he said. "I heard when -- a bam -- hit the house."
Jean then ran from his car, hopped a fence, and landed on his head.
"He was a little out of it. We got him a towel and we waited for the ambulance to come," said Antoinette Cannon, his neighbor of 20 years.
Cannon and her husband Albert heard a crash and then found Jean bleeding.
"He was always neighborly, kind, a very pleasant guy to see and be around," said Albert Cannon. "It hurts just as much as it hurts the blood family.
"Thank God he drove away in the car. And they still shot any way, but I say thank God he's still alive," said Sergo Jean, one of Rebel's sons.
Family members said they heard gunshots and then found Jean outside.
"When I heard my sister making noise 'Daddy, daddy,' and when I woke up and went outside, I saw my dad right there," said Holden Jean, another of Rebel's sons.
Jean has worked as a cab driver for nearly half his life, according to his family. They said he planned to retire in the coming months and move back to Haiti with his wife.
Fellow cab drivers stopped by the Jean home to visit. They said thieves often target them thinking they carry cash at the end of their shifts.
"I'm a cab driver, too. I'm just leaving the house and going to work. The same thing could happen to me," said Robert Exhume.
"If you're looking to put bread on the table for your family and -- somebody who is evil -- they're not supposed to do that," said Jean Robert Exhume.
Jean is expected to make a full recovery. He could be released from Jackson Memorial Hospital in three days.
Anyone with information on the attempted robbery is asked to call North Miami Police at 305-891-0294.