Willie Simmons
May 30, 2007
Algiers, Louisiana

The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
May 30, 2007

Cabbie slain in Algiers

A New Orleans cab driver was found shot to death in Algiers this 
morning.

Willie Simmons, 60, was found in his cab around 6:50 this 
morning in the 3100 block of Rose Lane in the Christopher 
Homes development, New Orleans Police said.

Simmons, a driver for Yellow Cab, died from a single gunshot 
wound to the chest, police said. Emergency medical technicians 
pronounced him dead on the scene.

New Orleans Police detectives and officers blanketed the area 
Wednesday morning during a steady rain looking for witnesses 
and clues.

A man who claimed he witnessed the shooting said he heard the 
cab's brakes squeal and the cab hit the fence in front of the 
apartment and bounce off the fence. He said a passenger in the 
cab had shot the driver and then ran from the area.

NOPD Deputy Chief Marlon Defillo talked with members of the 
media near the scene and said the cab would be taken back to 
the police Crime Lab and analyzed.

Homicide Detective Eduardo Colmenero is in charge of the 
investigation. He can be contacted at 658-5300.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
May 31, 2007

Driver killed in cab in Algiers

N.O. police search for shooter, motive

Thursday, May 31, 2007
By Allen Powell II

A New Orleans cab driver was found shot to death in his cab 
early Wednesday in an Algiers neighborhood.

Willie Simmons, 60, a driver for Yellow Cab of New Orleans, 
was found dead with a single gunshot wound to the body in his 
cab in the 3100 block of Rose Lane shortly before 7 a.m., said 
Officer Garry Flot, a New Orleans Police Department 
spokesman. Police responded to a call and found Simmons, who 
apparently crashed his Lincoln Town Car cab into a fence after 
the shooting, Flot said.

No motive or suspects have been released in the shooting. 
However, a man at the scene told reporters he saw Simmons 
being shot by a passenger who left money scattered around the 
cab.

Simmons' death is the sixth killing in Algiers this year and the 
second time a cab driver has been killed on the West Bank. 
Monier Gindy was killed Jan. 4 in Marrero in a botched robbery. 
Darnell Junior, 16, and David Page, 18, were indicted in March 
on second-degree murder charges in connection with that 
incident.

Don Carrigan, a general manager at Yellow Cab, said Simmons 
had just returned to the city in January after evacuating for 
Hurricane Katrina. He said Simmons had not been dispatched on 
a call when he was shot, but he could have picked up a 
passenger at a hotel or some other location.

Simmons had worked for Yellow Cab for more than 20 years, 
Carrigan said. He called Simmons a great example for other 
cabbies, a hard worker who rarely raised his voice.

"I wish I had 300 (like) him," Carrigan said. "Everybody liked 
Willie."

Simmons was the first Yellow Cab driver killed since Katrina, 
although the company has had drivers injured on several 
occasions, Carrigan said.

Simmons operated his cab as an independent contractor, and 
Carrigan said he had not installed a bulletproof partition between 
himself and passengers. However, Carrigan said it's unclear 
whether that would have protected him because most cab 
drivers are shot through their side windows by passengers trying 
to rob them.

He noted that many cab drivers refuse to work at night because 
of crime, and if they do, they typically confine themselves to 
passengers picked up from hotels.

"Very few (cab drivers) work at night because of stuff like this," 
Carrigan said. "It's horrible."

The victim's brother, Kurt Simmons, said his family begged him 
for years to give up driving a cab because of the danger, but 
Willie Simmons thought he could manage the risk by being 
careful about whom he picked up.

Family members asked Simmons, known for his snappy hats, to 
consider going back to Wal-Mart, where he worked when he 
evacuated to Maryland after Katrina, or to consider starting his 
own janitorial business. But he wouldn't budge, his brother said.

"Everybody in the family wanted him out of the business," he 
said. "He always felt like he had to be out there and be 
productive."

Simmons said he spent most of Wednesday breaking the news 
of the death to family members scattered across the state, 
including his 86-year-old mother. He said although his death has 
been hard to handle, it's not much of surprise because of the 
danger cab drivers face daily.

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