Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240207
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
"Should I, or shouldn't I," Ramchand wonders, scrutinizing the young man.
If he guesses wrong, it could be deadly.
A Bronx cab driver found Sunday with a bullet in the back of his head was the sixth hired driver to die in that borough in six weeks. Another was found dead Saturday in Brooklyn. Police believe robbery was the motive.
This time, Ramchand guesses right. He gave the teen-ager a ride and lived to tell about it.
"I'm taking precautions," he says. "I'm not picking up anybody I don't like the looks of."
Mayor David Dinkins has ordered undercover police officers to drive cabs in hope of catching the killer or killers. Soon, they may become the only nighttime cab drivers in the Bronx - scores have quit driving after dark.
"Why should I?" asked Carlos Rosado, a driver for Parkway Car Service. "It's crazy. I'm only 20. I'm not going to lose my life. No way."
But that's why Ramchand, who had been driving for a living for two months, works nights. So many night drivers have quit that Ramchand, who normally works days, is driving well into the night to help Express Taxi Service with its driver shortage.
Three of the shootings have been linked through ballistic tests to the same .22-caliber gun. Those three victims had been called to pick up passengers late at night at addresses within a mile of each other in the Bronx.
Ramchand admits there's little he can do to protect himself. Unlike many other drivers, he doesn't even carry a crowbar as a weapon.
"Passengers sit right behind you," Ramchand said. "You can't see them. You're not going to know if they're going to hit you."
Conventional "medallion" cabs, which are allowed to pick up passengers who hail them on the street, often have bullet-resistant partitions between the driver and passengers.
But the vehicles used by car services often are ramshackle and have no such partitions. The city's car services respond to telephone calls and may not pick up passengers who hail them on the street.
In New York's outer boroughs, medallion cabs are hard to find. They make more money picking up fares in busy Manhattan.
Some of the upscale chauffeur services accept vouchers, reducing the amount of cash a driver carries. But some, like Ramchand's, take only cash, making them moving targets for robbers.
He says he will not pick up a fare that "doesn't feel right."
That teen-ager with the baseball bat called from a section of street where the lights were not working. Ramchand went to the address and blew his horn, and the young man walked toward him. Ramchand looked carefully. He noticed the bat was accompanied by a glove, and the sweat and dirt on the youth's baseball clothes.
"As long as I'm careful, I'll be OK. I'm not scared but my wife is," Ramchand said.
Elsewhere in the Bronx, driver William Barnwell was less sanguine. One of his cousins was among the slain drivers.
"What can I say? I'm scared to death," Barnwell said.
"I've been robbed. I've been beaten up. I've had my (tooth) caps knocked out. I got 14 stitches in my head last year. And now this guy not only wants your money, he wants to kill you," he said.
Barnwell, who works days, says he has been robbed so often that other drivers tease him.
"That last guy, he didn't even say `stick 'em up,"' Barnwell recalled. "Man, I've never seen so many guns pointed at me since I took this job."
The attacks have taught him what kind of fare to avoid. "The tipoff is when somebody late at night wants to go only a short distance. Don't pick those calls up," he said.
by CNB