Police: Stray bullet killed cab driver
A cab driver was shot and killed Wednesday night, an innocent victim, police said, of a gunbattle that broke out about 10:30 on a downtown street.
Terry Lee Wilson, 53, a driver for Yellow Cab Co., died at the scene.
Police said there was an exchange of gunfire between two groups in the 300 block of Pikes Peak Avenue, and witnesses reported hearing 10 to 15 shots. Callers to 911 also reported that a Yellow Cab taxi had crashed.
Police found Wilson, who had been on Wahsatch Avenue, dead from a gunshot wound. Homicide Sgt. Sal Fiorillo said the driver, who had no passenger, was hit by a stray bullet. He died at the scene.
“This is a very sad day for Yellow Cab,” said Fred Hair, Yellow Cab’s Colorado Springs general manager. “Our prayers and our feelings go out to the family of the driver.”
No arrests have been made, and investigators don’t know how the gunfight began or who was involved, Fiorillo said. Thursday afternoon, detectives weren’t even sure where the two groups were when the shooting occurred.
The mood at the cab company was “very somber” Thursday, Hair said. Wilson had been driving for the company for about a year and was wellliked by other drivers and his passengers.
Late Wednesday night, after the shooting, cab drivers regularly drove by the tapedoff block. One driver pulled over and then walked past the tape, only to be escorted back to his car by police.
Driving a taxi can be a dangerous business, Hair said. In 2005, there was a spate of cabdriver robberies. In 2002, driver Phillip Swaba picked up three men at a motel, and he was found later that night outside his still-running cab, beaten, with his throat slit.
“If you focused on what might happen to you out there on the road, you would not drive,” Hair said. “Many of us have an attitude of ‘It won’t happen to us’ and that is not always well-founded.”
Several blocks of downtown were closed Wednesday night as investigators continued to pore over the scene.
Many drivers were caught off-guard and tried to navigate side streets. One driver was very surprised — police said she drove through a barricade at Pikes Peak and Corona avenues and into a police cruiser about 2 a.m. The driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, police said.
The area is largely commercial, and most businesses were closed at the time of the shooting. Some employees came into work Thursday morning to find police tape blocking streets and bullet holes in windows.
“Of course we’re concerned,” said Elizabeth Osborne, a stylist at The Gallery Hair and Nail Artists at 337 E. Pikes Peak Ave. “It interferes with our business, and it makes customers scared.”
A gunshot shattered a window in the same building.
“They had to dig a bullet out of our wall,” said Robin Reid, property manager for Craddock Development Company, the building’s owner.
It’s an area that’s trying to revitalize itself, where construction and renovation work are evident and shops have opened in previously empty buildings. Some said they hope the shooting won’t tarnish the area’s image.
“It probably could’ve happened anywhere in this day and age,” said Richard Bacon, production manager at Mercury LDO Reprographics at 315 E. Pikes Peak Ave. “But it’s certainly a little bit scary to have a bullet hole in the door frame.”
Investigators are trying to determine if the shootout stemmed from a dispute at a bar or club in the area, Fiorillo said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Colorado Springs Police Department at 444-7000 or Crime Stoppers at 634-7867.
It was the eighth homicide of the year in the city and the second within 24 hours.
Early Wednesday, Dianna Young was stabbed to death in her room at the Ranch Motel at 3900 North Nevada Ave. No arrests have been made.
Reporter Anthony Lane contributed to this report.
