Cabbie Killing Suspects Arraigned in White Plains

By Jon Craig

Four suspects in the murders of two New York City cab drivers were arraigned in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Tommy Smalls, 29, appeared in federal court Monday and was charged with carjacking with intent to cause death or bodily harm. Smalls faces the death penalty or life in prison.

Three other men were arraigned Friday in White Plains. They also are accused of murdering two cab drivers and stealing their cars to commit other crimes in Yonkers and the Bronx.

Takiem Ewing, Tyrone Felder and Kareem Martin were arrested Friday after a taxi cab driver saw the suspects and called police with a tip.

“We are sending a clear message to those that assault, hurt, fare beat and murder our drivers. If you commit the crime you will do the time,” said Fernando Mateo, spokesman for the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. “We can now start the healing process knowing these thugs are off our streets.”

“Drivers will work without fearing their next fare,” Mateo said. “Our industry has been terrorized in the past week.”

In a complaint filed in White Plains, federal prosecutors accused the men of shooting livery cabdrivers Maodo Kane, 49, and Aboubacar Bah, 62, in separate incidents.

They are accused of stealing each of the victims’ livery cabs and robbing businesses while driving one of the cars.

Prosecutors said the men ditched the stolen cabs in both cases and hailed different cabs to get home.

The men were charged in federal court because they crossed city lines, a law-enforcement official said.

Kane’s body was found about 5:30 a.m. Aug. 5 along Hunter Avenue in the Bronx. Shortly before that, Yonkers Police received a call that a minimart on McLean Avenue had been robbed at gunpoint. Surveillance footage outside the store showed the robbers arriving in a black sedan that resembled the one Kane had been driving. Five minutes after being called to the minimart, Yonkers police were called to a Dunkin’ Donuts on Central Park Avenue for a gunpoint robbery. At 11:30 a.m., police found Kane’s sedan abandoned in the Bronx, doused in bleach, with a cellular phone that was stolen from the minimart.

In a separate incident, New York City police found Bah on Aug. 12 with a gunshot wound to the head near Bryant Avenue in the Bronx.

Video footage showed the robbery-murder suspects dumping a body onto the street before getting into Bah’s cab and driving away.

About two hours later, Bah’s cab was found abandoned on Underhill Avenue in the Bronx. Video footage shows the cab pulling up to the location, and four suspects are seen leaving the car and wiping it down.

The men then took off their sweatshirts and threw them into a nearby dumpster along with a knapsack, according to the federal complaint against them.

Two of the men got into a car, while two others walked a short distance and hailed a livery cab. The livery cabdriver was interviewed by authorities and told police that he drove the men to a building on Third Avenue between 167th and 168th streets. Video footage from the building shows the four arriving at the building, according to the complaint.

Prosecutors said separate guns were used in the two shootings, but both guns were used during an unrelated shooting incident on May 29 on the corner of Ogden Avenue and West 162nd Street.

Kane’s cab was the suspected getaway car in a pair of armed robberies in Yonkers before it was abandoned near Yankee Stadium.

Ballistic evidence shows the same gun was used in both murders.

Facebook-related Robbery

Three Bronx teenagers were robbed in White Plains on Wednesday Aug. 13 after using Facebook to sell a pair of Nike shoes, police said.

According to police, a 16-year-old boy, his 17-year-old cousin and a 16-year-old friend drove to White Plains after advertising a $300 pair of Nike Air Jordan 11 Concord shoes on Facebook.

About 3 p.m. Wednesday, a buyer identified as “Matthew” told the boys to meet him at the White Plains Galleria. The buyer later told the boys he couldn’t make it to the Galleria, and suggested meeting at 86 Dekalb Ave. The “buyer” then told the boys his mother wouldn’t let him leave the apartment and told them to come up to the sixth floor of the building. The three boys were soon confronted by two youths with a pocketknife.

“Just take my sneakers,’’ one boy said at knifepoint. “If you chase us, I will cut you,’’ the boys were told. The thieves disappeared into a stairwell, police said.