David Malloy, 44, was originally from Pittsburgh, California, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) northeast of San Francisco, but moved to Vancouver in 1976. He enrolled in the University of British Columbia and graduated with a master's degree in library science. He started driving part-time for Vancouver Yellow Cab in 1987. He also worked for Black Top and MacLure's Taxi. Described as "extremely intelligent and extremely articulate ... a man who really loved knowledge," he was a writer by avocation with an interest in philosophy, poetry, music, politics and social issues. Something of a loner, he had few close friends. Nevertheless he was mild-mannered and friendly and popular among fellow cab drivers and others who got to know him. "That guy knew so much about computers I don't know why he wasn't a salesman for Radio Shack or something," said gas station attendant Al Archambault. At one of the other cab companies Mr Malloy worked the "wicket," collecting cash and time sheets from drivers. "I never saw him get into any arguments with anyone," said Daljit Khabra. "He was a very cool guy." On Sunday evening, March 17, 1996 Mr. Malloy picked up a young Black man in his late 20's near Robson and Seymour streets. The man directed him to North Vancouver and an alley behind the 700 block of West 20th Street, a 20-minute drive away. At 20th Street the man attacked him and dragged him out of the cab. Mr. Malloy was stabbed 23 times (17 times in the back). He was rushed to Lions Gate Hospital and was able to give police a description of his assailant. However, he died of a stroke two days later. Another Yellow Cab driver spotted Mr. Malloy's cab being driven by a young Black man with a goatee soon after the attack. Police distributed an artist's sketch of the suspect. Mr. Malloy's funeral was held on Friday, March 22. About 300 cabs formed a procession through downtown Vancouver and across the Lions Gate Bridge to Hollyburn Funeral Home in West Vancouver. Many of the cabs carried three or four passengers. The procession moved so slowly that the funeral service started more than an hour behind schedule. A week after the funeral, with police unable to make much progress toward solving the murder, the West Coast Taxi Association distributed posters offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Mr. Malloy's killer. Mr. Malloy's murder once again provoked discussion of safety measures for cab drivers. The two leading Vancouver newspapers, the Province and the Sun, both came out editorially in support of shields. "Critics worry and fuss about the image such shields will present to tourists. Answer: The clear plastic shields will be hardly noticed by travellers," declared the Province. "Shields will, however, protect cabbies, whose lives are the No. 1 priority. Let's get the shields installed and stop pretending we live in Disneyland."

David Malloy. (Source: Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Cold Case Files.) The Sun was equally adamant: """Yellow Cab, the city's largest taxi co op with a fleet of almost 200 vehicles logging 10,000 trips a day, estimates at least one cabbie is seriously threatened, if not actually assaulted, every two months."" " "Although reviews are bound to be mixed, and the very presence of taxi shields would make a statement to tourists about public safety in our city, one thing's certain: for a shield program to be effective, it must be mandatory across the board. "If David Malloy's sad demise leads to such protective devices in Vancouver, at least he will not have died in vain." Ironically, although Mr. Malloy himself was "very concerned about driver safety" he opposed the idea of installing shields in cabs because "he believed customer service should always come first." Other drivers were preferred to rely on "common sense" to protect them in dangerous situations. "You do get situations where you feel apprehensive," said Yellow Cab driver Dennis Donoghue. "As soon as somebody gives you an intersection as an address, or tells you they're going out of town, or want you to take them into Stanley Park, you've got to ask some questions or get an address. If they're not prepared to answer that, then you have to ask them to get out of the car." Global positioning systems were starting to be applied to fleet operations, offering the possibility of locating drivers who were in danger. Yellow Cab general manager Mark Luschner said that Mr. Malloy's death "gave us all the more reason" to replace a 10 year old digital dispatch system with an upgraded system incorporating GPS. Mr. Malloy was survived by his mother Gloria, a brother and three sisters, all living in the U.S. His body was returned to California and buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Antioch where his father Jesse was buried. Gloria Malloy died in 2010.