Saturday’s slaying of a cab driver in the District reveals a brutal reality about life as a city cabbie — violence is just a part of doing business.
“We’re really vulnerable,” said longtime cab driver Carolyn Robinson. “It comes with the territory.”
In the 36 years Robinson has driven a taxi in the District, she said she has been robbed at gunpoint, robbed at knifepoint, and in a third instance, robbed and sexually assaulted.
On Saturday in the District, Prince George’s County cab driver Domingo Ezirike, 40, was killed in his car outside the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Northeast. Rashad Terrell Slye, 20, of Southeast D.C. was arrested on Sunday and charged with murder.
Though cab driver killings are not commonplace, violence against them is, drivers say. The nature of the business — working with cash, alone and at night — makes drivers more susceptible to crime, especially robberies, according to industry data.
Police have not said whether robbery was a motive in Ezirike’s slaying.
While some safety precautions are available, such as a bulletproof divider in the cab or security cameras, they are not foolproof deterrents to would-be offenders posing as customers. Robinson said assailants can simply wait until the driver opens the window to speak and then make their move.
“The time that I did have a shield — that was the time I was robbed, kidnapped and sexually assaulted,” Robinson said, adding she doesn’t use a shield anymore.
No citywide data are available on cab driver murders, but according to industry statistics, murders peaked nationwide in 1991 with 76 that year. In 2009,the most recent year for which data are available, 24 cab drivers were killed on the job.
Kris Baumann, the police union president, said Ezirike’s murder was more likely part of an overall increase in violence in the District over the last week, rather than an indication that cab drivers are being targeted.
Ezirike’s slaying was the first of two in the city on Saturday; later that night a man was found shot near Howard University. Last week was the city’s deadliest week of the year, with nine murders in the District, including three on Oct. 17.
Baumann said the department’s manpower was down, which was particularly affecting the D.C. police districts that border Prince George’s County.
“Any progress we made there, we are losing,” he said.
