Cabdriver Shot in Head as He Fled Gunman

A 25-year-old cabdriver was in critical condition Monday night after being shot in the back of the head as he fled his cab in East San Diego, police said.

Michael Carroll of San Diego was struck by one bullet in an alley that runs parallel to the 5700 block of Bates Street. The gunman, who remains at large, fired two shots from a 9-millimeter handgun about 1 a.m. Monday after Carroll refused to turn over his money, police said

Carroll has been a nighttime cabdriver in San Diego since becoming an independent contractor with Coast Cab in December, a spokeswoman for the cab company said.

Carroll, the second San Diego cabdriver accosted in a 24-hour period, was on a life-support system at Mercy Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.

More than 20 cabdrivers have been robbed in San Diego this year, but none has been as seriously injured as Carroll, according to Sgt. C. T. Martin of the Police Department’s robbery unit.

According to police, Carroll picked up the man in front of an apartment complex on Bates Street and took him to a liquor store nearby. After returning to an alley that runs behind the apartments, the man drew a pistol and demanded Carroll’s money.

Carroll refused and darted out of the cab, running several feet before he was shot, police said.

Less than four hours before that, another man stuck a handgun in the ear of 55-year-old Joseph Mendel, a driver with Orange Cab, and robbed him of $110, a police spokesman said. Mendel was not injured in the incident, which occurred in the 2800 block of Keats Street in Ocean Beach. That attacker also remains at large.

Martin said two cabdrivers were robbed in separate incidents early Saturday but were not injured. In one of the cases, two men physically threatened a Co-Op Silver Cabs driver in Logan Heights and stole an undisclosed amount of money. In the other, a man grabbed a Yellow Cab driver in Southeast San Diego and threatened him as he stole the cab’s phone.

Police were not sure whether any of the robberies were related and said descriptions of the suspects appear to differ.