He only had $15 in his pocket but on Sunday morning that 15 dollars almost cost 48 year old taxi driver Clive Smith his life. That is because Smith was shot three times during a robbery attempt on Tigris Street. The nearly deadly episode started a few blocks away when Smith was on Albert Street just before one on Sunday morning which is when he says a young man asked him for a ride to Tigris Street – which is less than quarter mile away. Smith agreed but when he arrived on Tigris Street – nothing could have prepared him for what unfolded.
Clive Smith, Robbery Victim
“He paid me $5 and to stall me he asked me if that was enough and then the guy came on the bicycle and I took off and we scuffled a little bit and I reversed the car and I crashed the car. About four shots went off and I bawled for help. I got shot in my shoulder and here. The bullet went through and it didn’t tear my cartilage or else I would have bled to death.”
Keith Swift,
Did he steal anything from you?
Clive Smith,
“No, no it was senseless. I am a poor man, I only had about $15 in my car. I don’t why they would rob me; that doesn’t make sense.”
Keith Swift,
Will you continue to run taxi?
Clive Smith,
“It hasn’t scared me off. That is nonsense. I am a poor man. I just have to watch the people I pick up but I thought this young man was decent but he set me up.”
Both of the men were armed. The young man who hired the taxi had a.38 revolver while the man on the bike had what appeared to be a homemade gun. Police have made no arrests and their investigations continue.
