By STEPHANIE FARR

With his black cab draped in a white sheet to shield him from the view of onlookers, a driver for the Germantown Cab Company took his last ride yesterday when he and his taxi were towed together on a flatbed police truck from the scene of his murder.
Police were called to the parking lot of the Montgomery Townhouses on 20th Street near Berks in North Philadelphia shortly after 9 a.m. for a deceased man in a cab, said Sgt. Eric Gripp.

The caller never came to meet police, but as a crowd gathered around the taxi, investigators decided to leave the unidentified driver in the car and tow both from the scene, Gripp said.

Yesterday afternoon, homicide Sgt. Frank Hayes said that the medical examiner had ruled that the victim died from a gunshot wound to his head, just behind his right ear.

He said he didn't know how long the driver had been dead when police arrived.

A supervisor with the cab company said that the victim was working a 12-hour shift from 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 a.m. yesterday.

Hayes said that it was unclear whether the driver was dispatched to the townhouses to pick up a fare or was there to drop one off. Police are looking at the case as a possible robbery, with seemingly no unusual circumstances surrounding the murder, he said.

Tony Dillard, a supervisor with Germantown Cab, said that the company did not know what led to the crime. He said that the part-time Chester resident, who'd been with the company for four years, was an "affable guy" who had a "quiet sense of humor.

"This is not a normal, daily occurrence," Dillard said. "You hear about this, that this is a high-risk business. In actuality, these things happen far and few between.

"But it's a shame it happens at all."

Two Germantown Cab drivers, Kenny and Jay, who asked that their last names not be used, rushed to the scene after hearing about the murder over the cab radio yesterday morning.

"We came because we're all close, because we're all drivers," Jay said. "It's a shame. It's a shock."

Kenny said that a dispatcher came over the cab company airwaves to ask if anyone knew where the victim lived so his relatives could be contacted. Other than that, little else was said about the murder over cab radios, Kenny said.

"I'm devastated," he said.

"We've heard of this stuff happening all over the city, but not with Germantown Cab Company."

Kenny said Germantown Cab services the North Philadelphia area on a regular basis, and he answers a lot of calls in the immediate vicinity with relatively few problems. He said murders like this one are a tough reminder to all cab drivers.

"Every time we hear about these incidents, we try to keep to our Ps and Qs," he said.

"You got to make sure you check your passengers, open the doors and close that shield."

Both men said that the victim's cab was in park, the meter was running and his foot was on the brake when he was found, but police said they could not confirm those details.

"This is too much of a puzzle," Jay said.

The last area murder of a cab driver occurred on Christmas Eve when County Cab driver Gregory Cunningham, 42, was robbed and slain in Upper Darby.

Ramir Steve, 19, of Upper Darby, has been charged in that killing, and is being held in Delaware County Prison, awaiting trial.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080421_Driver_found_shot_dead_in_his_taxi_in_N__Phila_.html