Cabdriver Helps Nab Carjack Suspects

A cabdriver helped chase two suspected teen-age carjackers, one of them armed, Friday--and said he will leave the heroics to the police next time.

Police credited Abubakar A. Shagari, 23, of Gardena with helping catch two South-Central Los Angeles teen-agers arrested on suspicion of carjacking. Half a dozen other citizens also assisted.

“It was a great community effort,” said Los Angeles Police Officer James Blocker.

Shagari said he was stopped at a red light just after 9 a.m. when he saw three teen-agers in a late-model Toyota Celica rear-end a Datsun 280Z at the Redondo Beach Boulevard off-ramp of the Harbor Freeway--a crash that police said was part of a carjacking attempt.

Once the two cars pulled to the side to inspect the damage, two of the teen-agers got out of the Toyota and forced the 30-year-old woman driving the Datsun out of her car, Shagari said. The teen-ager who walked up to the driver’s side had a gun in each hand, Shagari said.

The cabdriver then pulled up to the Datsun and told the suspects to get out.

The carjackers refused, but when they could not start the Datsun, they began running down Redondo Beach Boulevard, Shagari said. After following them in his cab, Shagari chased them on foot. He overtook one youth, identified as 14 years old, punched him in the stomach and began chasing the other one. Shagari said he found the gun-toting youth, identified as 17 years old, slumped down inside a garage and ordered him out.

The teen-ager reportedly stood up, brandished the guns and chased Shagari about a block.

“He just kept cussing me and chasing me,” the taxi driver said.

At that point, Shagari said, he was thinking, “They (South Bay Yellow Cab) taught me about safety rules, but I just blew it.”

The rules call for cabbies to avoid confrontations.

Shagari said that the teen-ager did not fire any shots and that he and Shagari eventually split off from each other.

Unfazed, Shagari got back into his cab to chase the 17-year-old, then saw the 14-year-old. Shagari said he got out of his car and pounced on the younger boy. A crowd soon gathered, and many began punching the teen-ager, including a middle-aged woman who Shagari said removed her black high-heeled shoe and whacked the boy in the head.

Shagari said police arrived about 15 minutes later and arrested the boy. The 17-year-old was found after a 20-minute search of the area, and police say they recovered one unloaded gun. Blocker said police expected to arrest the driver of the Toyota, who fled. The woman driving the Datsun was unhurt; police did not release her name.

The Nigerian-born Shagari acknowledged that chasing the youths was risky.

But, he said, “if I don’t do it, I feel guilty. What if it was my sister or mother?”