Results tagged “liverycabdriver”

A livery cab driver died after being shot in the chest by a passenger in the Baychester section of the Bronx. NY1 reports that police suspect that Amadou Ndiaye, 46, may have been shot during an attempted robbery—he was shot while driving, then hit a parked car and later another car waiting for the light at the intersection of Wilson Avenue and Boston Road. While Ndiaye's family says he worked for Top Limo—he company denied that—and "prior to that, he worked at Harlem Car Service." There were apparently no car decals indicating what car service employed him, which NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers president Fernando Mateo said would help the investigation. Mateo also said, "We don't know if the perp ripped out the camera, but we do know there was no partition in the vehicle and that's a problem." Ndiaye's relative said, You don't want to be bum. You don't want to eat in the garbage can. You don't want to sleep outside. You have to wear clothes. So what can you do? That's the only things you can do. You try to be good guy, but bad guy kill you for nothing, no reason."

Just before 1 a.m. yesterday, livery cab driver Roberto Pita was shot multiple times by his passenger. Pita's car crashed into PS 306 at Davidson and Tremont Avenues in the Bronx and police believe the Ecuadorian immigrant deliberately crashed the car to stop an attempted robbery. When police arrived, they found the suspected shooter in the backseat—along with a gun—with injuries to his face and hip; the suspect, 20, was taken to the hospital and charges are pending. The dispatcher at Premium Car Service told the Daily News "that [Pita] drove 16 hours a day to earn money for his wife and two children in Ecuador." Speaking to the Post, another colleague said,"His wife came to New York for the first time this week and left just yesterday. All he ever wanted was to be with his family."

If you're not going to invest your money with a reputable Ponzi schemer, than why not with a livery cab driver posing as a hedge fund owner? Alan Fishman, Brooklyn resident and "president" of AR Capital Group, and Daniel Ledven (an AR Capital manager) were arrested on fraud charges and a court document noted Ledven's testimony to the SEC, "The primary occupation of the president of ARC, was as a livery driver, and the president had very little investment experience prior to starting ARC." Between 2003 and 2006, they managed to raise $20 million—sending $18 million to bank accounts in the Ukraine and Lithuania. According to the Daily News, "One of the biggest victims likely was a 65-year-old unidentified retiree from Ohio who was hooked with a cold call. The man initially invested $10,000, then another $250,000. Phony positive return statements hoodwinked him into eventually boosting his investments to about $8 million." Fishman and Ledven are out on bail; a third man, Gary Gelman (Fishman's nephew), is on the lam.

Police arrested Saleh Al Muwallad after discovering a woman's dismembered body in his Coney Island apartment on Sunday night. According to the Daily News, livery cab driver Al Muwallad had called 911 and told police when they arrived, "I killed her. Go inside." The victim, Jessica Guidici, was a home health care worker who lived in the neighborhood and just turned 27; apparently she was a frequent customer of Al Muwallad's. Newsday says she was stabbed in the neck and then her body was cut up and placed into four garbage bags. The NYPD said, "He made statements implicating himself, including the fact he was angry at her for seeing another man," but her friends say she was dating the same man for 9 years and was never involved with Al Mawallad. Her mother told Newsday, "He was a cab driver we called and we knew happened to be obsessed with her," while a friend said, "He had a little crush on her. We thought it was a joke.... We couldn't understand what he was saying half of the time. We would brush him off.

Police, responding to a 911 call from a suicidal man, arrived at a Coney Island apartment and found the man—who showed them a woman's dismembered body. According to the Post, "a deranged livery driver inexplicably attacked a Brooklyn health care worker." The victim, Jessica Guiducci, was killed in the Coney Island apartment she shared with her boyfriend. One friend said she had just turned 27, "We had a party all weekend for her... I can't believe this is happening." Giuducci's friends also recognized the 53-year-old man taken into custody as a livery driver from the neighborhood. The man is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

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."

Late last night, livery cab driver Winston Frank was killed in a hit-and-run that police believe was preceded by a robbery. Frank, apparently an unlicensed driver, had picked up a fare in Ozone Park. While driving, police think he argued with female passenger in the front seat--and the woman pushed him out of the car. Halfway out of the car by his seat belt, Frank was then struck by a passing car; a witness told the AP, "He was being dragged the whole time." The woman apparently drove off in Frank's car, which was found abandoned a few blocks away. WABC 7 reports a witness saw two men approach the car and then take "out with a black box." The police are looking for the woman and the driver of the passing car.

The police are looking for two men who may have been involved in the stabbing of a livery cab driver late last night. Apparently the driver crashed his car on Hering Avenue near Burke in the Bronx, and witnesses saw two men running from the car. The driver was reportedly stabbed in the stomach and chest, and WABC 7 reports a trained EMT was lives nearby went to the scene. She said, "I applied pressure to the wounds...His intestines were hanging out. I just checked his pulse and kept him alive until the cops came." The driver is currently in serious but stable condition and this is the "third attack on livery cab drivers within the past month."

Early this morning in East Elmhurst, Queens, a livery cab driver was shot in the face. WCBS 2 reports "someone posing as a customer hopped into a livery cab and shot the driver in the cheek." The victim, Jose Santacruz, works part-time for the Tulcingo car company (his other part-time job is as a cook in Manhattan) and managed to make calls over the radio for help. A dispatcher told the Daily News he sent drivers to check out the situation, and by the time emergency services got there, they "found Santacruz lying on the ground and bleeding from the face." Santacruz is in stable condition; police hope surveillance footage from the cab will help them with the investigation.

After the city was moved by the story of a baby abandoned in the backseat of a livery cab and how the driver dropped off the baby at a fire house, prompting the police and media to look for the baby's relatives, it turns out the livery cab driver was involved in the abandonment scheme. Driver Klever Sailema was arrested today, as were another man and woman. Oh, no.