BELMONT — The head of a taxi drivers' advocacy group called on the NYPD to ramp up stop-and-frisk police tactics following the deadly shooting of a green cab driver in The Bronx early Monday.
Mamadou Barry, 39, was shot to death as he sat in the driver's seat of his green Lincoln Town Car, becoming the second livery car driver to be killed in less than a week, according to the NYPD.
Barry, the father of three with a pregnant wife, died of a gunshot wound to his head about 1:30 a.m. near E. 189th Street and Beaumont Avenue, police said.
His death follows the slaying of 35-year-old Rafael Veras, an aspiring livery cab driver who was stabbed to death Thursday in East New York inside his brother's taxi, which he had borrowed overnight in an effort to earn extra cash. .
"We must stop these senseless murders now," said Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. "How many more drivers must die before we implement some form of stop-and-frisk? We are unsafe, and that’s not acceptable."
The attacks demonstrate the need for a safety program for taxi drivers, Mateo said, noting that hundreds of green cab drivers planned to take to the streets Monday to protest the death of Barry.
The investigation into Barry's death is ongoing, police said.
