Cabbie attack

Karen Zekan

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

An apparent robbery attempt has left a local cab driver with a gunshot wound to the arm after his assailant flagged down the ride and then opened fire, police said.

Bullets dented the door frame and left a web-shaped shatter mark in the windshield of the Vegas Western minivan during the incident near Washington Avenue and D Street shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Based upon the details the unidentified driver was able to provide before being transported to University Medical Center, police believe the gunman was within feet of the driver's side door when he popped off several rounds from a handgun and ran.

The driver, wounded only in one arm, sped away from the intersection to the Plaza hotel-casino downtown -- a location where he thought he would be safe, police said. Upon arrival, he was transported by paramedics to the hospital.

Authorities are withholding the victim's identity until relatives can be notified. Police are working with little as far as a suspect description, and have not confirmed if the gunman got away with any money.

Taxi Authority officials, arriving at the Plaza driveway where the driver left his car parked, declined to comment on the incident until they could interview the driver.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call robbery at 229-3921 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.

Tuesday's attack was the second in less than a month on a local cab driver.

On Jan. 14, a cab driver was stabbed and robbed by a man he'd picked up at the Luxor hotel-casino about 1:40 a.m. and was transporting to a local nightclub. The driver survived deep cuts inflicted with a 3-inch paring knife to his hands, face, chest and shoulders suffered moments before losing control of the wheel and crashing into a street light in the 4400 block of Koval Lane.

Police have yet to catch the suspect, described as a white male in his late 20s or early 30s, about 6 feet 1, 170 pounds with reddish-brown hair.