Livery Cab Driver Shot to Death in Coney Island

A 61-year-old livery cab driver was fatally shot while working in Coney Island. It's believed that Khadim Hussain Bhatti picked up a few passengers at 5 a.m. and one shot him in the stomach. According to the NY Times, Fernando Mateo, spokesman for the NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said that Bhatti worked for a car service, but "added that [Bhatti] worked in his off hours for lower fares not arranged through a dispatcher," which is what Bhatti was doing yesterday morning: "It was not a dispatched call, it was an independent hustle, which we don’t encourage, but that is the way these guys make a living." Bhatti, a Pakistani immigrant, had supported his family with his driving. Mateo also said that the number of livery cab killings had dropped off in recent years—the last he could remember was in 2006, “In the 1990s, through 2000, there were well over 250 murders of livery drivers. They averaged about 25 a year, or two a month."