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Man Arrested in Murder of Bronx Cab Driver, Police Say

By Eddie Small | September 24, 2015 12:22pm
 Nicholas Sanchez, 24, has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of cab driver Mamadou Barry.
Nicholas Sanchez, 24, has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of cab driver Mamadou Barry.
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NYPD

BELMONT — Police arrested a man for the murder of a Bronx cab driver who was found shot in the head early on Monday morning.

Nicholas Sanchez, 24, was charged with murder, manslaughter, attempted robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of 39-year-old cab driver Mamadou Barry, a father of three, police said.

Officers suspect that Barry picked up Sanchez near E. 138th Street between Cypress Avenue and Brook Avenue and drove him up by E. 189th Street and Beaumont Avenue, where he took out a gun and shot Barry in the head.

Sanchez has previously been arrested for criminal sale of marijuana and theft of service, according to the NYPD.

The murder of Barry, whose fourth child is on the way, came soon after the killing of Rafael Veras, an aspiring livery cab driver who was stabbed to death on Sept. 17 in East New York.

The string of deaths led Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, to call for an increase in the city's controversial stop-and-frisk police tactic.

Although Mateo said it was painful to know that Barry's death could have been avoided, he was still very happy about the arrest of Sanchez and grateful to the NYPD.

"As far as the taxi industry is concerned, we feel safer knowing that this guy is not out on the streets anymore," he said.

Sanchez was arraigned and ordered held without bail on Thursday morning, and he is due back in court on Sept. 29, according to the Bronx District Attorney's Office.