Derrick Washington
WCPO.com, News 9
Cincinnati, Ohio
January 24, 2004
Local Cab Driver Back On The Job After Being Shot
If you call for a cab in Cincinnati Thursday night, there's a chance your driver may have been the cabbie who was shot in the back earlier this month.
Derrick Washington of United Cab was back behind the wheel of his cab within days of his close brush with death.
Washington worries about how his shooting is making it harder for him to make a living.
He said he is happy to be back on the streets in his cab with his fellow taxi drivers.
He's driving his fares around even though he still has bullet fragments lodged in his body that still leaving him in nagging pain.
But he considers himself a real "survivor".
"I'm glad to be here that's for sure, feeling very blessed," Washington said.
Washington has been driving taxis for 22 years now and he's not going to let getting shot stop him. In fact, he got back behind the wheel just three days after being shot in the back last week in Over-the-Rhine.
"What can I do? The landlord and nobody else cares if I got shot. They all want to get paid. I got to stay out there and work," Washington said.
Washington was shot by one of two men after they robbed him of all the money he had. He drove himself, bleeding, to police headquarters after being robbed, he thought he was safe.
"He just stopped and looked down at me and grinned and stuck the gun right in my face and pulled the trigger. Grinning! Like he was really having fun," Washington said.
Washington said he now keeps his doors locked all the time but he's not going to stop driving into Over-the-Rhine, where he was shot.
"That's my neighborhood. I'm not going to not pick up people in my own neighborhood a few drivers are scared to death to come up there and I want to provide service to people in my neighborhood," Washington said.
Washington said he has thought about carrying a gun, but worries that might get him into more trouble instead of less.
What would make him feel safer, he said getting the two men involved in his shooting caught and put behind bars.
"They don't need to be on the street because if they shot me like that, they'd probably shoot you if you're sitting right next to them. If they think you are going to tell, they'll shoot you. They don't need to be out here. I just worry the next person that they're going to do that to might end up dead," Washington said.
You can help protect Washington and his taxi driving colleagues by reporting any leads you might have, to the identities of the two men who shot Washington last week.
All you have to do is call Crimestoppers at 352-3040. You don't have to give your name and your tip could earn you a cash reward.
In the meantime, Washington said he has not seen the two men around the neighborhood and he hopes he never does.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/01/22/cabdriver.html
Reported by: 9News
Web produced by: Stacy Puzo
Photographed by: 9News
1/22/04 5:20:53 PM
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