NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A North Miami cab driver was shot early Tuesday morning during an apparent attempted robbery. Police are still searching for the would-be robber.

Rosette Jean said her husband Rabel, 68, was just pulling up in front of their home in his cab at NE 145th Street and NE 7th Avenue after working the night shift when someone approached him with a gun and tried to rob him.

In an effort to escape, Jean hit the gas as the gunman fired. Jean, who was hit in the arm, crashed his cab into a neighbor’s house.

After the crash, Jean got out of the cab and tried to go to his house but didn’t make it – he collapsed in a yard. That’s where his daughter found him.

“He was on the side of the house, that side of the house they have an opening so he tried to jump the wall and I just told him to wait for me there and I went towards the back to get him,” said Jean’s daughter Mirabelle. “The blood was everywhere.”

Jean was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he was treated for the gunshot wound and a gash to his head he received in the crash.

“That person needs to be caught because it’s too much now. It’s too much for what. Working all night without even $20 in your pocket and you almost get killed for it. It’s too much,” said Jean’s wife Rosette.

Jean said her husband has been a cab driver for more than 30 years. She added that he planned to retire next month and they were going to move to Haiti to live in the house they just built. A criminal nearly dashed that dream.

“We almost lost him for nothing,” said Rosette.

Fellow cab driver and neighbor Jean Robert Exume said more should be done to protect those who work in the taxi industry.

“They have to stop the violence with us, because we don’t do nothing. We have to fight for justice, it’s not right,” said Exume.