Family Of Wounded Livery Driver Begs For Help
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Help us catch the gunman.
That was the emotional plea by the family of a livery driver, who was shot and left for dead inside his cab.
"It's very hard to see him lying there. He can't move. I mean...," a distraught Sharon Thomas, the cousin of the victim, told CBS 2's Pablo Guzman on Thursday.
When Thomas began to talk about her cousin, Trevor Bell, fighting for his life after being shot a week ago in his cab, she could not continue.
"At the end of the day he may be able to run but he ain't gonna be able to hide," Bell's son, Trevor Bell Jr., said of the person who pulled the trigger.
The family broke their silence at Jamaica Hospital on Thursday by asking the suspected shooter, whom police identified as Shawn Peace, 22, to turn himself in.
A video was made by the camera in the cab Trevor Bell was driving when he was shot last week. There was a struggle and police said the suspect hit bell with the gun and demanded money. You can see Bell's hand as he tries to protect himself. Then comes the nearly fatal moment: Peace, police said, raises the gun and, a moment later, fired the first of several shots.
The family supports cab association president Fernando Mateo's call to drivers to actually "profile" who they're about to pick up.
"Ain't no white people comin' in and killin' us, a cab driver," said Christopher Cole, the victim's cousin. "They transporting the same black; the same Hispanic … and they're the same one killin' them -- for five dollars!"
Trevor Bell has a gunshot wound to his neck and three wounds in his leg. He has had three surgeries and is fighting to stay alive.
Police sources told Guzman the suspect is believed to be part of a crew responsible for at least 16 robberies and assaults in just six months.
