BROOKLYN — An aspiring livery cab driver was stabbed to death inside the taxi that he borrowed from his brother overnight in hopes of making some extra cash, police and officials said.
Rafael Veras, 35, was found with multiple stab wounds to his torso in the driver's seat of the New Lots Car Service vehicle, which was parked near Shepherd and Dumont Avenues in East New York, about 12:51 a.m., an NYPD spokesman said. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he died.
Veras, of Brownsville, was not a registered taxi driver, but was working to obtain his TLC license, said Fernando Mateo, the head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
"This was Mr. Veras' first day ever working the streets of East New York," Mateo said. "Unfortunately, it was his first and his last day behind the wheel."
There were no immediate arrests and there was no description of the killer, police said.
Veras leaves behind a 17-year-old son, Mateo said.
"This driver never stood a chance," he said. "He went out to the most dangerous area in the city of New York to work in the wee hours of the morning, and he picked up the wrong people."