Taxi Driver Found Shot to Death in Long Beach

The third taxi driver to be slain on duty in the last three months was found shot to death in his cab on a residential street in Long Beach early Thursday.

A teen-age boy was arrested in Orange County about eight hours after the attack, Long Beach police said. The youth, who was booked for investigation of murder, was not identified because of his age. Detectives declined to say how he was linked to the crime.

Police and officials at the AM-PM Taxi Co. in Carson identified the victim as Jeno Zoltan Koncz, 38, a Hungarian immigrant, who had been working for the company since last February.

“He was a nice guy, a real likeable guy,” said Robert Bixler, an inspector with the taxi firm. “He was doing real well. We got compliments about his work.”

Investigators believe the killer hailed the cab and, once inside, pulled a gun to rob Koncz. Whether Koncz tried to resist was not immediately determined.

Long Beach Police Lt. Ken Schack said Koncz was shot in the back of the head at about 2:45 a.m., apparently while the taxi was still moving.

The car swerved into a driveway in the 1100 block of Hoffman Avenue and came to rest against a fence. Residents awakened by the sound of the gunshot said the attacker was gone by the time they looked out the window.

The residents called police. Schack said that when officers arrived, they found Koncz’s body slumped behind the wheel of the car and a rear tire was on fire. The cause of the blaze was not immediately determined.

Since early May, two other Los Angeles-area cab drivers have been slain by passengers apparently bent on robbery.

Titus Imaku, 35, was found shot to death in a South Los Angeles alley on May 1. Ume Onyeanusi, 54, was shot to death July 5 near Broadway and 80th Street. His driver’s pouch, containing his wallet and cash, was missing.

“Things like that are always in the back of your mind when you’re driving,” said Bixler, who used to drive a cab. “Then, when it happens, you think, ‘Who’s going to be next?’ ”

“You definitely feel vulnerable,” said AM-PM driver Joe Honeycutt. “One day you can have a beautiful girl in your cab. The other day you can have ‘Joe Businessman’ with a gun in his hand. . . . We have no protection.”

Bixler said cabs are equipped with an emergency switch that cuts off one headlight and taillight to alert any passing police car of trouble.

“Of course, it doesn’t do any good if they don’t notice,” he said.

The cab company official said the best defense may be a “gut feeling” that experienced drivers develop for potential fares that might pose a problem.

“There are strong indicators--the clothes they’re wearing, things like that,” said John Sims, another AM-PM driver.

“When you get that feeling, you don’t stop to pick them up, you just drive on by,” Bixler said.

Margit Horvath, a Fullerton resident who had known Koncz for more than 10 years, burst into tears when she learned of his death.

“He was a nice man,” she said in her native Hungarian, speaking through an interpreter. “He was a good friend.”

Horvath said she and her husband first met Koncz through mutual friends in Budapest during the early 1980s. Koncz’s father had immigrated to the United States, she said, and the younger Koncz, eager to live in a “free country” and seek his fortune as a “businessman,” eventually was able to follow, leaving behind three children from three former marriages.

Horvath said she and her husband immigrated at about the same time, eventually becoming reacquainted with Koncz.

Horvath said she last saw Koncz on Saturday--his 38th birthday--when he stopped by the Horvath home on Flower Avenue.

“He said he wanted to get to know God,” she said. “He was trying to get his life in order.”