The paragraph count remains the same after rewriting.

Mame Gueye, 25, of the Bronx, clashed with his 47-year-old taxi driver around 10:35 p.m. at East 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue in Gramercy Park when his credit card declined, authorities said. 

The cabbie demanded that Gueye get out of the car, which he did, cops said. 

But then Gueye turned violent – pushing the taxi driver out of the car and onto the sidewalk, hitting him in the stomach and chest, and wrapping his hands around his neck, police said. 

Then Gueye hopped behind the wheel and took off, cops said. 

NYPD cops – joined by the victim – managed to track the yellow Toyota to East 79th Street and Madison Avenue on the Upper West Side, where the allegedly drunk driver had crashed into a parked vehicle, police said. 

He ran off, with officers chasing him on foot for about a block, before they cuffed him at East 79th Street and Park Avenue, cops said. 

Gueye was arrested and faces a laundry list of charges, including second-degree robbery, grand larceny auto, aggravated unlicensed operator, driving while intoxicated, criminal obstruction of breathing, obstruction of governmental administration and third-degree assault, police said. 

The driver was treated at the scene of the attack but did not need to be hospitalized, cops said. 

The alleged carjacker has one prior arrest for driving while intoxicated in March 2023, cops said.