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3rd Pinellas Cabbie Slain; 'It's Scary, Man,' Driver Says

News Channel 8 photo by TODD DAVIS

A cabdriver was found dead in his vehicle this morning at a Clearwater shopping center on U.S. 19 North in the Countryside area.

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By STEVEN GIRARDI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 17, 2008

Updated: 09/17/2008 01:39 pm

CLEARWATER - The assault on cabbies has moved into north Pinellas County, with another driver found shot to death today behind a Countryside area shopping plaza.

Jack Lagrand, 50, was found halfway out the open driver's door of his Yellow Cab in a parking lot behind a plaza at 25716 U.S. 19 N., said Clearwater public safety spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts.

Police said he was killed between 1 and 2 a.m. A business owner in the plaza found him about 7:30 a.m. He had a bloodstain on the front of his shirt.

Lagrand, of 2296 Primrose Lane, Apt. 1503, is the third cabdriver killed this year in Pinellas County, with the previous killings in St. Petersburg.

On May 2, Blue Star cabbie Cyril Obinka , 45, was found shot in the abdomen on 26th Street South.

Yellow Cab driver Linda Faison, 39, was found dead near Azalea Middle School in July, hours after she picked up a passenger at 5:40 a.m., police said.

Nearly 20 other cabbies have been robbed in St. Petersburg this year, prompting the St. Petersburg Police Department to meet with taxi company officials in July to establish a safety program. Police have not heard back from any of the companies since the meeting, department spokeswoman Midge Walsh said.

In Tampa, a 45-year-old driver from Spring Hill was cut on the neck with a knife during a robbery attempt in July.

After hearing about today's shooting, United Cab driver Damian Krumins came to the Countryside shopping plaza this morning to place flowers. "Just wanted to come and pay respect," he said.

Krumins said he saw Lagrand about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday pulling into Countryside Mall, a few blocks away from the plaza.

"It's scary, man," he said. "All year long we've been hearing about cabdrivers dying here and there."

Krumins said his rule is to not work past midnight. "Bad things happen after midnight, but some guys, that's how they make their living," he said.

Yellow Cab driver John Bridge stopped beside the scene while police investigated. He held out his arm to show how it was shaking. "If I drank, I'd go have some whiskey," he said.

Bridge, 43, said it is exactly the thing cabdrivers fear.

"Everybody talks about it," he said. "There are a lot of areas I won't work. This is one I would work because it's supposed to be safer up here. Now this happens."

Bridge figured the passenger either told the driver to drop him off in the dark parking lot behind the shopping center or forced him to drive there.

With little protection, he said, cabbies are vulnerable, especially at night. He said another driver he knows recently was robbed in Tarpon Springs.

"It's easy crack money," he said. "They see a cabdriver, and they see easy money."

In truth, he said, drivers never carry more than $150. "After that, they put it away," he said.

There is nothing to separate drivers from their backseat passengers, he said. A partition wall would cost about $800, "and cabbies can't afford that," he said.

A call to the Yellow Cab Co. was transferred to a woman who said the company would have no comment on the shooting.

Chiropractor Brandon Wood, whose office is in the plaza, said he went out back when he arrived at 8 a.m. and saw the driver and car behind the Aaron's Sales and Lease store.

Employees at Aaron's and at a Hertz car rental business, the only other plaza stores open this morning, declined to comment.

Roy Bliven, a telemarketing employee in a plaza next door, said he drove a cab when he moved here from Albany, N.Y., six years ago but would never do it again.

He had a fare who was using the cab to make drug runs, which Bliven says persuaded him to leave the business.

"This could have been one of my buddies," Bliven, 65, said as he motioned to the dead driver. "For what -- $20, $30? This is baloney."

Anyone with information should call Clearwater police at (727) 562-4422.

News Channel 8 Reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report. Reporter Steven Girardi can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or at sgirardi@tampatrib.com.

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