A horrific Sunday crash has left 9-month twins hospitalized. A livery cab crashed into a minivan that was double parked on Fourth Avenue near 44th Street in Sunset Park, and then the minivan crashed into a legally parked pickup truck. The truck was pushed onto the sidewalk, hitting little Gustavo and Daniel Machuca, whose family was getting them ready to get into the truck.
Baby Twins Remain Hospitalized After Car Crash
Livery Cab Driver, Friend Nabbed In Queens Man's Murder
Early Tuesday morning, a man was found dead on a street in Ozone Park, Queens, with a wound on his head. Ramnariain Matadin, 58, a super for a Park Slope building, was last seen leaving a bar in a livery cab and, yesterday, police arrested the livery cab driver and his friend for Matadin's murder. Police believe that suspects Deevan Jagnarine, 21, and his friend Alex Gobardhan, 19, robbed and beat Matadin.
Fatal Livery Cab Crash Into Bus Stop: "So Much Blood"
Yesterday morning, a livery cab crashed into a Bronx bus shelter, killing a 76-year-old man and injuring six others. One woman's foot needed to be amputated: According to the Post, "Witnesses said the sickening impact in Kingsbridge left sprawled pedestrians screaming in pain, with shattered glass embedded in their faces and limbs, and a maimed woman shouting, 'Where's my foot? Where's my foot?'"
Livery Cab Driver Shot Dead Near Prospect Park
A livery cab driver was found shot and bleeding in a Crown Victoria at the corner of Parade Place and Crooke Avenue in Brooklyn around 2 a.m. It's believed the shooting took place after a robbery. According to WPIX, "His car had slammed into a parked vehicle, and he was found on the floor behind the front seats. He was transported to a local hospital with gunshot wounds to the torso and was pronounced deadly shortly after." The victim, 45, was apparently working as an unlicensed driver. A few weeks ago, a livery cab driver was shot by passengers after a fare argument in the Bronx.
Child Walking To Day Care Injured After "Freak Accident"
There are more details about the incident that left a 4-year-old child critically injured in the Bronx yesterday: Though it was initially reported that a livery cab slammed into little Joshua Delarosa and his mother, who were walking to his day care, at 230th Street and Broadway, it turns out the car slammed into a pole (with a pedestrian crossing sign), which then fell onto the boy.
Livery Cab Strikes Two, Child Critically Injured
According to the NY Post, "A livery cab driver plowed into a woman and her 4-year-old son as she was walking him to nursery school... nearly killing the boy, cops said. The 27-year-old man was driving a black Lincoln southbound on Broadway at 230th Street around 8:30 a.m., when he rammed into the 41-year-old Bronx woman and her son crossing at the intersection." The boy is in critical condition while the mother is in stable condition. Also: "The driver stayed at the scene and was not charged."
Cabbie Attacked By "Vampire" Robber Shows Wounds
As police continue to search for a man who allegedly bit a cabbie on the arm, neck and back during an attempted robbery, the livery cab driver has come forward with his side of the story. Mahmoud Seck says that when the gun-wielding passenger demanded his money, he threatened, "Your family --- expects to see you dead!"
Livery Cab Driver Fatally Shot By Passenger
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."
Livery Cabbie, Fatally Shot By Passenger, Crashes Car
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."
Driver Posed As Hedge Fund Boss, Swindled $20 Million
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.
"Obsessed" Livery Cab Driver Killed, Dismembered Woman
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.
Cops Find Dismembered Body In Brooklyn Apt.
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.
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."
Robbery May Have Led to Fatal Livery Cabbie Hit-and-Run
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.
Livery Cab Driver Stabbed in the Bronx
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."
Livery Cab Driver Shot in the Face
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.
Driver, Others Arrested in Abandoned Baby Case
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.

