Tania Dall / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- Three cab drivers have been targeted by armed robbers in the last three days.
In some of those cases, drivers were even carjacked at gunpoint.
"I said, 'Get in,' but I felt something wrong, but it was too late," said Omar Qasim, a taxicab driver with American Cab.
Early Sunday morning around 1:10 a.m., Qasim says two women and a young man flagged him down on North Rampart Street in the French Quarter.
"The gentleman asks me to take him to Columbus [in the 7th Ward]. So I assume they are a family together and so I say, 'Welcome, and get in.' He sits besides me and the ladies didn't make any move," said Qasim, who began driving the young man away in his cab.
Within minutes, Qasim said his passenger asked him to pull over so he could urinate. Instead, the young man pulled out a gun demanding cash from Qasim.
"He said: 'You broke!' I said: 'Yes, I'm broke. I don't have money.' He said: 'Well, just drive off and I'm not going to shoot. I'm sorry, I should not do that,'" said Qasim of his conversation with the gunman.
A close call. However, two hours later NOPD confirms a different taxicab picked up a passenger in the Quarter at Dauphine and Conti. The driver was later robbed and then carjacked near Columbus Street and North Johnson Street in the 7th Ward.
Police say the taxicab van was in the 1500 block of N. Derbigny Street just three blocks from where a second taxicab was carjacked on Tuesday morning. The cab driver told investigators he picked up a passenger in the 900 block of Rampart Street, taking him to the intersection of Columbus Street and North Derbigny in the 7th Ward, where the driver was also robbed and carjacked.
"Definitely think they're related. The descriptions pretty similar on the perpetrator and the MO on the incident is pretty much exactly the same," said NOPD Detective Sgt. Troy Williams.
These latest carjackings have cab drivers across New Orleans worried about their safety.
"This is our lives, you know. In one second your life is gone. You have to be careful or really get yourself another job," said taxicab driver Arthur Hashim.
Back behind the wheel after Sunday's scare, Qasim said he's just happy to see another day.
"I was under his mercy to kill me or not. So I was lucky that he did not shoot," said Qasim.
NOPD said its looking for a black man, 5'7" to 6'0", with a heavy build and clean shaven with short hair.
In both cases, the man was wearing blue jeans and either a white t-shirt or gray jacket.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 822-1111.
