Livery Cab Driver Found Stabbed To Death Inside Car In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The first night by himself on the job for a livery cab driver became his last after police said he was stabbed multiple times inside his car in Brooklyn.
It happened around 1 a.m. Thursday at the intersection of Shepherd and Dumont avenues in East New York.
Rafael Veras, 35, had just dropped off a fare and was sitting in his car waiting for another call when police said someone stabbed him in the torso more than a dozen times as he sat in the driver's seat.
Investigators said the attacker took nothing and left Veras to die, still secured by his seat belt.
Renso Pimental, Veras' brother, is stunned. A livery driver himself, he said he let Veras borrow his Taxi & Limousine Commission licensed car to drive.
"He don't do anything wrong in the street because we comes to this country to work hard, not to do anything illegal," Pimental told CBS2's Hazel Sanchez. "We don't need to do that for survival in this country, just we have to work hard."
The attacker fled the scene. Veras was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
"I hope police find him," Pimental said. "Who did that to him? That's all I want to know, you know because he don't do anything wrong to nobody. He's a real good guy all the time."
Police said they are looking at the security camera video from the livery cab in hopes of identifying a suspect.
Veras was hoping to go from a restaurant worker to a livery driver to help support his mother and teenage son.
"His son is devastated," another relative told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera. "He was a great father to his son."
Veras was a cab driver in training. He had applied but had not yet received his taxi and limousine driver's license, Sanchez reported.
Fernando Mateo, president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, said Veras should not have been picking up fares if he didn't have his license and said the livery cab company did not know about his inexperience.
"In fact, the base was unaware that he was out on the street working in a borrowed car," Mateo said.
Mateo said Veras "never stood a chance."
"He went to the most dangerous area in the City of New York to work in the wee hours of the morning and he picked up the wrong people," he said. "We're hoping drivers learn and understand that it's not just getting behind the wheel and taking off and picking up people. No. It's knowing your neighborhood, knowing your community, understanding who you should pick up and who you shouldn't."
The investigation is ongoing.