Wounded Cab Driver Describes Assailant

A composite drawing of a man wanted in the robbery and shooting of a woman cab driver last week was released Wednesday by San Diego Police after they used a lip reader to get a description from the victim.

The color rendering of the man who shot 40-year-old Sharyn Kamrath was composed at Kamrath’s bedside at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. Robinson said she was barely able to move her lips to describe her attacker, so the lip reader, borrowed from the Los Angeles Police Department’s scientific division, helped interpret for the artist.

The suspect is described as a clean-shaven man, possibly of Cuban or Puerto Rican descent, in his late 20s or early 30s. The man is about 5 feet, 8 inches tall with a medium build, Robinson said.

Kamrath picked up the suspect at 6th Avenue and Broadway about 10 p.m. on July 29, Robinson said.

She drove him to the 8100 block of Gilman Drive, where he robbed her of less than $10, then shot her in the back of the neck and dumped her body on the side of the road. At the time of the shooting and robbery, the man was wearing a long-sleeved shirt.

Paralyzed from the neck down, Kamrath is still listed in serious condition but her vital signs are improving, hospital officials said.

Anyone with information on the suspect is asked to call the police robbery unit at 236-6424 or 236-6566 after 4 p.m.