Cab Driver Leaves Airport With 2, Is Slain in Inglewood

A part-time driver for Beverly Hills Cab Co. was shot and killed on an Inglewood street Saturday night about an hour after he picked up two passengers at nearby Los Angeles International Airport, police said Sunday.

Although no one knows who killed the driver, the incident stunned cab drivers, who complain that Los Angeles regulations force them to take just about anyone who shows up at airport taxi stands--or risk being suspended from the lucrative airport run.

Officials who administer cab service at the airport, however, denied they are forcing drivers to risk their lives. Instead, they blamed cab companies for not installing bulletproof partitions so that drivers are safely separated from their passengers.

The death of Ami Fhima, 31, was the first in the city since 1985, officials said, when another Beverly Hills Cab Co. driver was found slain after working the airport. Each year, between 70 and 80 cab drivers are robbed and several are assaulted in Los Angeles, officials said.

Shot in Back of Head

Fhima was shot in the back of his head shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday near 111th Street and Van Ness Avenue, Police Lt. John Frazier said. Officers spent Sunday searching for his cab, which was painted blue with white lettering.

“People say they heard shots and looked out and two fellows had the driver on the street and they were going through his pockets and then they jumped into the cab and drove off,” said Sid Charles, operations manager at Beverly Hills Cab. “They found his wallet in another area.”

Cab officials said Fhima was last known to have picked up two passengers at the United Air Lines terminal about 7 p.m., but that he made no radio contact with dispatchers in the hour leading up to his death.

Fhima also did not relay his passengers’ destination, they said, but he was not required to because the volume of calls would overload the dispatchers’ radio frequency.

Fhima emigrated from Israel six years ago to study engineering, according to his brother, Shimon. He is survived by his wife, Judy, 29, and two infant sons in West Hollywood.

Fhima recently tried to launch a clothing business in Westwood, the brother said, but thieves broke into his van about two weeks ago and stole $5,000 in merchandise. He returned to the taxi trade on weekends to help pay his debts.

“This guy who got killed, I don’t know him personally, but I believe if he could have refused that passenger he wouldn’t have gotten killed,” said Abdol Khodavandi, an independent cab driver. “They force them to take anybody,” said Carmella Rosenbach, a dispatcher for Beverly Hills Cab. “It doesn’t matter if they have luggage, you have no right to refuse service. The drivers are furious. They make us pick up drug dealers, pimps and whores.

“Most cab drivers survive on feeling,” she added. “It’s terrifying having someone sitting behind you in the dark, not knowing who they are.”

Even if they are wary because a rider is not carrying luggage, the drivers are obligated to take the fare. If not, they are sent back to the holding lot where they wait for another chance to go back into the airport.

Cause for Rejection

“A cab driver may turn down a trip if the passenger is drunk, if the passenger is violent or he has very stinky clothes on, or no shoes, or is suspicious looking, or dirty and he’s talking to himself,” said Oruc Selcuk, assistant general manager of Airport Taxicab Management, the private firm that coordinates the flow of cabs into the airport on behalf of the city. “But you cannot say, ‘You look like a hooker, I’m not taking you.’ ”

Selcuk said drivers will occasionally refuse to take passengers because of their race or because of their destinations.

“Then they call us and I say (to the driver), ‘You either take this guy or I’m going to cite you and you’re off the airport.’ Drivers who don’t comply can be suspended up to four weeks.

“My heart is with the cab drivers,” Selcuk said. “After waiting too long, they can end up with a short trip. But my advice is, if you cannot stand the heat, get out of it. You need a lot of patience to operate a taxicab.”

Behzad Bitaraf, Airport Taxicab Management’s general manager, estimated that he suspends “one or two” cab drivers a week, but not always for refusing passengers.

He denied that the city forces drivers to take on dangerous riders. Bitaraf said they can return to the holding lot and wait--usually “a half hour to 40 minutes”--and then go back to the airport again.

Bitaraf said drivers have the right to ask their passengers for specific addresses before they leave or determine if they are able to pay the fare.

The drivers complain that they are at the whim of “starters,” people employed by Airport Taxicab Management to monitor the number of passengers leaving from each terminal. There are 10 taxi stands in the airport and an average of 1,700 cabs go through the complex each day.

Using walkie-talkies, the starters notify the holding lot to dispatch cabs one-by-one to terminals. If a passenger only wants a ride from one terminal to another, he must be picked up and the driver is out his time and money.

Officials said chaos would ensue if drivers were allowed to compete for passengers.

But Bitaraf said something can be done to protect drivers: floor-to-ceiling bulletproof partitions can be installed in cabs.

“It’s cheap,” he said. “It costs an average of $250. . . . I have no authority to force these guys to put partitions in there. It’s between the (city) Department of Transportation and the cab companies’ management.”

With partitions, he said, “If a guy pulls a gun, he can’t kill you.”