DATE: Tuesday, November 4, 1997             TAG: 9711040296

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   49 lines

2 TEENS SOUGHT IN SHOOTING OF CAB DRIVER

Police are looking for two teen-agers in the shooting and attempted robbery of a cab driver Sunday night.

Driver Mike Proctor, 42, picked up the teens shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday. He was driving down Loren Crescent in the Cavalier Manor neighborhood when one of the teens pulled a gun and shot the driver in the face, police spokeswoman Amber Whittaker said.

The teens got out of the cab and ran, Whittaker said.

Proctor then drove to Greenwood Drive and Cavalier Boulevard where he got help, she said.

He was treated and released from Sentara Norfolk Hospital Sunday night. Family members said he cannot talk.

Proctor described the suspects as black males in their late teens, Whittaker said. One was wearing a white shirt and the other was wearing a baseball cap and had braids, she said.

The teens face charges of attempted robbery and malicious wounding.

A neighbor said Monday that Proctor and his family, who live in the Prentis Park section, are quiet, nice and hard-working people.

Proctor owns his own cab and has driven for Safeway Taxi Service for more than a year, company president Irving Williams said. Proctor was an experienced driver who had also driven for Yellow Cab in Norfolk, Williams said.

``Everyone was kind of stunned,'' Williams said.

Safeway drivers are not required to pick up passengers on the street, Williams said. Dispatchers also let drivers know if a caller sounded intoxicated or disturbed, he said.

Other than that, there aren't many precautions a cab driver can take, Williams said.

A federal study released last year showed that driving a cab is the riskiest job in the United States. In 1994, 86 cab drivers were homicide victims, the study said.

``We are vulnerable, but we've been quite fortunate,'' Williams said, noting that robberies and violent assaults against his drivers have been rare in recent years.

Three years ago, a Safeway cab driver was shot in the back, Williams said. He survived. Sunday night's incident was the most serious involving a Safeway driver since then, he said. MEMO: Anyone with information should call Crime Line at 488-7777 or

the police at 393-8536. KEYWORDS: SHOOTING ASSAULT

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu