Cabdriver Slain in South-Central

The bullet-riddled body of a Nigerian cabdriver was found on a South-Central Los Angeles street, the second person killed during a spate of cab robberies over the past two months, investigators said Saturday.

Police who responded to a neighbor’s report of gunfire at about 10:50 p.m. Friday found the body of Ume Onyeanusi, 54, sprawled near 80th Street and Broadway, said Los Angeles Police Detective Roosevelt Joseph.

“A neighbor heard several shots, walked outside his residence and observed the victim lying on the sidewalk,” said Joseph, a South Bureau homicide investigator who was on the scene. “No one else was in sight.”

Onyeanusi, a driver with L.A. Taxi Co., was lying on the pavement about a half-block from his car. He died at the scene. The driver’s pouch with his wallet and papers was emptied out, Joseph said.

The detective said it was too soon to know if Onyeanusi had been robbed by a passenger or a passerby. “He was apparently about to go out on a call, but this happened before he was able to reach that point,” Joseph said.

Tim McKeon, a shift manager at L.A. Taxi, said Saturday that the Nigerian immigrant had worked for the firm since January. McKeon said his drivers were “obviously taking this pretty badly.”

Since early May, one Los Angeles cabdriver has been killed and several others wounded by fares who tried to rob them. Another Nigerian driver, Titus Imaku, 35, was found shot to death May 1 in a South Los Angeles alley, the apparent victim of a robbery.

Other victims have included another emigre, Christopher Nwankpele, 34, shot twice in the abdomen and robbed of $150 in mid-June by a passenger, and Beltazar Munguia, 56, who was seriously wounded in late June in Hollywood by a passenger who stole $80.

The most recent incident occurred in Pacoima on June 23, when cabdriver Donald Shanks, 49, was slightly injured by four men who opened fire on his cab in a robbery attempt. A passenger in the cab was also slightly wounded.