Friend’s Murder Brings Fear Into Taxicabs ‘You’re On Your Own Out There’

Sam Sands is scared.

Like dozens of Spokane cabdrivers, the 24-year veteran won’t take just any passenger these days. Nor will he drive to secluded, remote areas.

“You’re on your own out there,” said Sands, a driver for Black & White Taxi. “It’s really hard to protect yourself when something happens.”

Not all cabdrivers have been able to.

Three days ago, one was shot and left to die in his cab. Police haven’t identified the victim, but his fellow cabbies knew him as “Dusty” - a quiet, 42-year-old man who had driven taxis for nearly 20 years.

Police haven’t found his killer.

“I was in shock,” said Sands, who spent time with Dusty during coffee breaks. “I couldn’t believe it happened. We never had to worry before.”

Spokane cabdrivers are becoming more at risk to crime and violence, several said Saturday while waiting for customers outside the Ridpath Hotel.

Mike Alderman, who has driven taxis off and on for 11 years, made a decision to never work the night shift. He and his wife thought it was too dangerous, he said.

Sands, who started working the day shift several years ago, said he could no longer deal with some of the evening clientele - belligerent drunks, prostitutes who kept begging for lower fares, people who were stoned out of their minds, he said.

Dusty, who was robbed and killed Thursday night in north Spokane, picked up his last customers at The Onion restaurant on North Division. Soon after, gunshots were heard near the intersection of Standard and Hill ‘N’ Dale.

Police found him dead - slumped inside his Lilac City cab.

Since Dusty’s death, a driver quit at River City/All Star Taxi, said Gene “Tiny” Parslow, a company driver and dispatcher. He didn’t want the same thing to happen to him, Parslow said.

Parslow’s children, who also were frightened by the news, didn’t go to bed until they saw their father arrive home safely after driving last night.

“It’s scary to be a cabdriver in Spokane,” said Alderman, who drives for River City/ All Star Taxi.

Taxi drivers can do little to protect themselves, many of them say.

In big cities such as Chicago and New York, laws require cabs to have a Plexiglas partition between the front and rear seats to separate drivers from passengers. While the barrier may not have prevented Dusty’s shooting, it could discourage people from attempting to harass or steal from drivers, Sands said.

A driver’s only defense at times is his or her use of discretion when picking up passengers, Parslow said.

“Is it the dollar or is it your life?” he asked. “Being a family man, you have to be selective. But if you don’t cater to the dispatchers, you don’t make money.”

Some drivers, however, don’t have a choice.

Those who lease their cabs from the companies pay an average of $55 a day plus $15 for gas. To make a profit, the driver has to drive at least 70 miles a day.

New drivers who don’t have regular clientele can’t afford to be choosy, Sands said. Some also get in trouble with the dispatch center owners for not responding to a call.

“Every time you drive, you take a risk,” Parslow said. “You drive with the fear of never seeing your family again.”

, DataTimes