Ghulam Mustafa
June 5, 2007
Baltimore, Maryland

The Baltimore Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 5, 2007

Cabdriver fatally shot in Charles Village

Road rage incident occurred in 100 block of W. 28th St. between 
Maryland Ave. and North Howard St.

By Richard Irwin
Sun Reporter
Originally published June 5, 2007, 11:30 PM EDT

A cabdriver was fatally shot Tuesday night as he transported a 
passenger in Baltimore's Charles Village after a road rage 
incident on a nearby street, city police said.

No arrest had been made, and the nature of the argument was 
not known, said Agent Donny Moses, a city police spokesman.

About 9 p.m., Northern District police received a call of a 
shooting in the 100 block of W. 28th St. between Maryland 
Avenue and North Howard Street, Moses said.

"When police arrived, they found the driver of a Checker cab 
slumped in the driver's seat bleeding from a bullet wound to the 
head," Moses said.

He said the driver, whose name was not immediately released, 
was taken by a city Fire Department ambulance to Johns 
Hopkins Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. A 
male passenger in the cab was not injured.

Moses said police were interviewing the cab's passenger in an 
effort to learn where the argument occurred and what it was 
about.

The police spokesman said the cab and a dark car were each 
traveling eastbound in the 100 block of W. 28th St. when, during 
an argument, a passenger or the driver of the other vehicle fired 
at least one shot that struck the cabdriver in the head.

The dark car sped away, and its driver tried to go north on 
southbound-only Maryland Avenue, then backed up and struck a 
car ahead of the cab before speeding away on 28th Street. The 
driver of the other car was not hurt.

Moses said that after the cabdriver was shot, the cab stopped or 
drifted backward and struck a car directly behind it. The female 
driver of that car was not injured.

Morris Hunt, 44, said he was in his home several doors from the 
shooting scene when he heard one gunshot.

"Then I heard the sound of a crash, and that was probably the 
cab hitting the car behind it," said Hunt, a Johns Hopkins 
University employee. Police were searching Tuesday night for 
the gunman.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Baltimore Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
June 6, 2007

Road rage shooting takes life of cabbie

Argument, tossed coffee lead to death, police say

By Gus G. Sentementes
Sun Reporters

Ghulam Mustafa had picked up his 11th dispatched taxi call of 
the day -- a blind passenger who needed a ride from Woodlawn 
to his home in Northeast Baltimore.

But another long and busy day on the streets of Baltimore for 
Mustafa -- a 33-year-old immigrant from Pakistan -- was cut 
short in a deadly encounter Tuesday night in what police 
characterize as a road rage incident. While traveling east in the 
100 block of W. 28th St. in Charles Village, Mustafa and the 
driver of a dark-colored car got into a heated argument.

Mustafa tossed a cup of coffee at the driver, who pulled a gun 
and fired at the cabdriver, striking him once fatally in the head, 
according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the 
investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The blind passenger, whose name was withheld by police, was 
not injured in the attack. Authorities said the passenger has 
provided valuable information to investigators about the final 
moments that led to Mustafa's death.

Police detectives believe the confrontation began when a vehicle 
first tried to make an illegal left turn onto Maryland Avenue, 
which is a one-way street, and then tried to merge back into 
eastbound traffic on 28th Street, authorities said.

Investigators believe there was more than one person in the car, 
and police are seeking the public's help, a police spokesman 
said.

The driver's wife, Robyn Vullo Mustafa, 36, has been in Florida 
caring for her ailing mother. In a telephone interview 
Wednesday, Mustafa said in a soft and trembling tone that soon 
after she learned of her husband's death Wednesday, she went 
to church and prayed for him and his attacker.

"I'm very torn about the person who did this because not only did 
they take my husband and my child's father, but robbed us of our 
home and our sole earning of a living," said Mustafa, who is not 
working while raising their 5-year-old daughter.

Last week, Ghulam Mustafa had been approved for permanent 
U.S. residency, and he was planning a celebratory trip to his 
native land by the end of the year. He had been in the United 
States since 1997, his wife said.

The family lives in a Laurel apartment and had plans to buy a 
townhouse closer to Baltimore, his wife said. One of 11 siblings -
- and the only one living in the United States -- Mustafa had 
wanted to take a trip to Pakistan after not having visited his 
homeland for about a decade, his wife said. Now, his family is 
having his body shipped to Pakistan for the funeral, she said.

"I'm just shocked that this happened to him," she said. "I really 
am."

Mustafa is the third city cabdriver killed on the job since 2003. 
Veolia Transportation Inc., which operates a network of Yellow 
and Checker cabs, said it is offering a reward of $2,500 for 
information that helps police arrest and convict the suspect in 
Mustafa's killing.

Dwight R. Kines, the company's general manager, said that what 
happened to Mustafa has shocked cabdrivers, but that overall 
crimes against drivers have decreased over the past decade.

"It's hard to reassure [cabdrivers] with something that's so 
random," said Kines. "It can happen to any driver in the city. ... I 
think our [drivers] realize the dangers."

Jaspal Singh Gill, 30, who holds the permit for the cab that 
Mustafa drove for him as part of the Checker Cab Association, 
said he last spoke with Mustafa on Friday. "He was a good 
driver. I had no problems with him. He liked to work nighttime."

Mustafa was among a small but growing group of South Asian 
cabdrivers in Baltimore. Mostly men who have come from 
Pakistan and India, the immigrants take jobs as cabdrivers 
because they can work long hours -- and make more money the 
more hours they work, according to several drivers who knew 
Mustafa.

Gill said that he met Mustafa about two years ago, when they 
were both driving cabs in the city. Gill eventually bought his own 
cabs, and Mustafa came to work for him about three months 
ago.

Mustafa's wife said her husband "basically worked 24 hours a 
day." According to Veolia Transportation, owner of the Yellow 
and Checker cab associations, Mustafa was a native of Lahore 
and graduated from high school in Pakistan in 1991. He drove 
cabs on and off for the company for the past two years, Kines 
said.

Chaudhry Qamar, 50, said Mustafa was a "very experienced 
driver" who could often be found waiting to pick up a fare at the 
Greyhound bus terminal in South Baltimore. He said Mustafa 
regularly sent money back to relatives in Pakistan.

"He was a very honest, hardworking guy," Qamar said. 
"Everybody was shocked about this brutal murder."

Nadeem Akhtar, 34, said he knew Mustafa from waiting at the 
same taxi stands together. They shared jokes and concerns 
about work, and spoke of having families in Pakistan that they 
helped with money.

Akhtar said cabdrivers do fear for their safety. On Tuesday night, 
the same night that Mustafa was killed, Akhtar said, two men 
tried to rob him at gunpoint outside his Lansdowne home after he 
had parked his cab. He threw a handful of papers at them and 
ran away, avoiding the robbers, he said. He believes the men 
targeted him because they saw that he drove a cab and believed 
that he had money.

"This is too much for us who drive the cabs," he said.

This news digest is for informative purposes only. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, news clippings on this site are made available without profit for research and education.

[ Back to top ]