Charite Salvant
May 31, 2007
Miami Gardens, Florida
WFOR-TV Channel 4 (Miami, Florida) May 31, 2007 Taxi Cab Driver Shot & Killed On The Job (CBS4) MIAMI GARDENS Taxi cab drivers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation and that fact was proven true again early Thursday morning when a South Florida cab driver was shot and killed on the job. According to Miami-Dade police, a yellow taxi cab driver was called at 5:15 a.m. for a pickup near 28th Avenue & NW 167th Street in Miami Gardens. When he arrived, a suspect or suspects, shot him in the torso. It happened close to the Emmanuel Kindergarten and Day Care Center. The school opens at 6:00 a.m. and there were no children on the premises yet. Neighbors reported hearing multiple gun shots. After being shot, the cabbie tried to drive away but crashed through a fence and nearly hit a house at 2980 NW 167th Terrace. When police arrived, the driver was dead, slumped over the wheel. Police are searching for a motive and a suspect in the case. It's believed the shooter phoned the cab company from a pay phone at NW 27th Avenue & 167th Street at 5:02 a.m., said police. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477). +++++++++++++++++++++++++
Miami Herald
Miami, Florida
June 1, 2007
Veteran cab driver is lured to his death
A taxi driver killed in Miami Gardens was a father of eight and had been a Miami-Dade cabbie for 22 years.
BY YAMICHE ALCINDOR, JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ AND EVAN S. BENN
ebenn@MiamiHerald.com
The call that ended Charite Salvant's life came two minutes after the cab driver started his shift Thursday.
At 5:02 a.m., Salvant was dispatched to pick up a man who had called from a pay phone at Northwest 27th Avenue and 167th Street, police said.
Less than 20 minutes later, Salvant was shot dead.
Police found him slumped inside his cab about three blocks from the pickup location. His car had rammed through a fence and come to a stop in a front yard in the 2900 block of Northwest 167th Terrace in Miami Gardens.
Now police are racing to find out who made that pay phone call Thursday morning, while Salvant's family is grasping for answers.
"My head is heavy," son Manasse Bossicot, 23, said in Creole outside the family's West Little River home. "I'm still in shock. I cry, but I'm still waiting for him to come home."
Investigators do not have a description of the shooter, Miami-Dade police Detective Robert Williams said. They are hoping a witness will come forward who may have seen someone use that pay phone Thursday morning.
It's unclear whether Salvant was shot during a robbery, how many rounds were fired and how much cash Salvant would have had on him at the beginning of his shift.
The shooting happened about 200 feet from the Emmanuel Kindergarten and Day Care Center, a large complex attached to a Christian school.
Salvant, 57, was a father of eight who emigrated from Haiti more than two decades ago.
He had worked the same 5 a.m.-to-5 p.m. shift for 22 years with Miami's Yellow Cab Co., his family said.
A company manager was not available to comment about Salvant on Thursday night.
Despite his grueling days on the road, Salvant taught himself how to fix computers, and he attended services every Sunday at St. James Church.
He saved money to take his family on a monthlong vacation to Cap-Haitien in July.
"Now we will never go," Bossicot said.
Sarah Bossicot, Salvant's 17-year-old daughter, said she doesn't understand why someone would want to kill her father.
"He's a friendly person," she said. "I can't believe he's gone."
Sarah awoke Thursday to her family's screams when police delivered the news of Salvant's death.
She'll be a high school senior next year.
"He will never be able to see me graduate,"' Sarah said.
Miami Herald photographer Tim Chapman contributed to this report.
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Miami Herald
June 11, 2007
Family mired in despair after cabbie is slain
Family and friends of a taxi driver who was slain last week remember his life's work as an immigrant supporting his family in Miami and Haiti.
By YAMICHE ALCINDOR
yalcindor@MiamiHerald.com
Taxi driver Charite Salvant was shot as he began work on the morning of June 1.
Whether he was playing the guitar at Haiti's Presidential Palace or picking up people in his cab in Miami-Dade for the past 22 years, Charite Salvant always tried to be happy, work hard and provide for his family in South Florida and Haiti.
His was in many ways an immigrant success story -- until June 1 when the 58-year-old was shot to death in his cab before sunrise barely 30 minutes after he started his 5 a.m. shift.
His family, friends and police have yet to figure out why -- beyond a killer's reckless disregard for life. No arrests have been made.
"He was a good man. He never had any trouble with anyone and was always laughing and telling jokes," said Gislene Biscot, Salvant's partner for 28 years and the mother of three of his eight children.
Salvant, a driver with Miami's Yellow Cab Co., was shot multiple times in the back of the head; the windshield of his cab was shattered. His car rammed through a fence and came to a stop in a front yard in the 2900 block of Northwest 167th Terrace in Miami Gardens -- just three blocks before he was to pick up a passenger.
Family members are now left with only memories, the echo of Salvant's laugh and worries about how they will pay the mortgage on their three-bedroom peach home in West Little River -- and help family back in Haiti without the family's breadwinner.
On a recent Sunday, Salvant's friends and family sat outside the home reflecting on his life.
"If he was alive he would be here today telling jokes outside with us," said Josette Bathelemy, a next-door neighbor for 13 years and childhood friend from Au-Trou-du-Nord, a quiet village in northern Haiti.
"His killers didn't want anything but his life," Bathelemy said. ``The police gave the family the $50 found in his wallet and the necklace that was still around his neck."
Salvant's daughter, Farah, 17, a high school senior next year, said: ``He will never be able to see me graduate."
His son, Jean, who studies engineering at Miami Dade College, said Salvant was ``a good father."
Family members said that while growing up in Haiti Salvant was well liked. He enjoyed music and school. "He was always into learning something new," Bathelemy said.
His cousin Vilfort Salvant remembered him as an honest young man who played guitar in an army band during Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's regime.
In the 1970s, family members said Salvant landed a job on a cruise ship, the Norway, handling cargo. After receiving several promotions, Salvant helped get jobs for his family members, said Jean Salvant, a cousin.
HEAD OF FAMILY
"He was the center of the family," Jean Salvant said. ``If he had something, he wanted to share it. Everyone looked up to him."
After an accident on the ship in the 1980s, Bathelemy said Salvant gave up cargo work and moved to Miami, where he lived with his cousin Lucien Salvant. He later became a permanent U.S. resident.
Biscot followed him to Miami, saying they had a special relationship. ``It was love at first sight. He saw me and I saw him, and we got together."
"He came here with ambitions," Lucien Salvant said. ``He always had wonderful projects in mind."
Salvant first took a job as a jitney driver. After a few years, he began driving for a van service that transported the ill. Then, in 1985, Salvant became a taxi driver.
Co-workers say Salvant chose to work in the "underserviced area" of Carol City and Opa-locka when few other drivers would. "He was a brave guy," said Les Eisenberg, a director with Miami Yellow Cab Co. ``He was always in a good mood, and everyone here will miss him."
Eisenberg said the company often received good customer feedback about Salvant. "He was good guy who went out of his way to help his community." The company plans to launch a website in Salvant's memory, Eisenberg said.
Eisenberg hopes the violent death of Salvant, the second in two years of a Yellow Cab driver, will lead to new safeguards like the Drive Cam that videotapes activity in and around a cab.
The company is offering a $25,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of his killer.
The dispatched call that led to the murder came between 4:50 a.m. and 5:10 a.m. from a pay phone at 2711 NW 169th Terr, said Miami-Dade homicide Detective James Hatzis.
LEADS SOUGHT
Investigators have been talking to neighbors and passing out fliers asking anyone who was in the area near a Citgo gas station June 1 to come forward with any information. Robbery is a possible motive.
In his last days, Jean Salvant said his cousin, who often visited his hometown, contemplated returning to the serenity of Au-Trou-du-Nord, saying he was tired and wanted to retire.
"Two days before he died he said he wanted to go home to his family's home in Au-Trou. He wanted to go back, and now he won't ever get to go home," Salvant said.
Viewing for Salvant will be from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday at Emmanuel Funeral Home, 14300 W. Dixie Hwy. Services will be Saturday at St. James Catholic Church, 600 NW 131st St.
Anyone with information about Salvant's murder is urged to call Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS or Miami-Dade homicide Detective James Hatzis at 305-471-2400.
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