WINDHAM – Police say a taxi driver was assaulted early Sunday morning after dropping off a passenger in Windham.

According to Lt. David DeGruchy, the department is still investigating the incident, which occurred at 5:30 a.m. Sept. 11, when a Jetport Cab driver was assaulted by a passenger on Gambo Road.

DeGruchy said the investigation was ongoing and that he had no further information, but that “it has been referred to a detective.”

The cab driver, Ilyas Sharis, the 27-year-old owner of Jetport Cab, said he was still recovering from being punched in the head by the assailant.

The incident occurred, Sharis said, after driving a man from Morrill’s Corner on Forest Avenue in Portland to Gambo Road, a ride that took about a half-hour. Upon arriving at Gambo Road, Sharis said, the man exited the vehicle and came around to Shari’s driver’s side window, saying he would pay the $54 fare with a credit card. As Sharis reached for the credit card processing machine, the man struck him in the head between the eye and ear and then ran off.

Sharis said he blacked out from the blow and immediately called 911 with his cell phone when he regained consciousness.

Two Windham cruisers were sent to the scene, as well as a K-9 unit from Portland Police Department. The K-9 track proved unsuccessful, DeGruchy said.

Sharis said he had never been assaulted in his five years driving a cab. He said it came unexpectedly, since he and the passenger had a “pleasant conversation,” and “he seemed like a nice guy, very professional.”

Sharis further described the attacker as about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 25-30 years old, “a very clean guy, not drunk,” who said during the ride to Gambo Road that he used to work in the military at the Brunswick Naval Air Station before moving to Windham.

“It’s awful, it’s awful, very upsetting,” said Sharis, who was taken to Maine Medical Center by Windham rescue after the assault. “You give service to someone and if he had said I don’t have any money, I would have said, ‘It’s all right.’ I’ve done that tons of times.”

With the assault happening on Sept. 11, which marked the 10th anniversary of the Pentagon and World Trade Center attacks by Muslim terrorists, Sharis, a Somali Muslim, isn’t sure whether the attack was racially or religiously motivated.

“It did happen on Sept. 11,” Sharis said. “I felt like the guy did have money, he seemed like he did at least. So maybe the guy was upset about Sept. 11. I don’t know.”

DeGruchy wasn’t willing to comment on the implications of the assault. The case, he said, “has been referred to detectives who are looking into it as an assault,” he said.