A taxi driver and father of three was shot and killed while sitting in his green cab in the Bronx early on Monday, just seconds after he told his brother-in-law on the phone that his passenger had a gun, police and family say.
Mamadou Barry, 39, was found dead in the driver's seat of his Lincoln Town Car at about 1:30 a.m. at East 189th Street and Beaumont Avenue in Belmont, authorities say.
Family members say that just before the shooting, Barry told his brother-in-law a passenger had a gun. His brother in law told him to be careful, and he hung up the phone.
Barry's sister, Mariam Barry, said: "He told him this man have a gun. My brother-in-law said, 'Be careful.' After he said, 'Hello, hello,' and he never answered."
It appears as if Barry's car crashed into several cars after the shooting.
His inconsolable family was at the scene of his death later Monday, along with several fellow taxi drivers.
"Somebody killed my husband for no reason. He never did nothing to nobody," Barry's wife, Bienta Barry, said in tears.
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Barry had been driving a cab for 12 years, and he and his wife were expecting their fourth child.
"He worked hard for his kids and his wife," said Bienta, crying. "He loved his family."
No arrests have been made. Barry is the second cab driver killed in the Bronx in less than a week, and the fifth in the last 18 months, according to the cabbies' union, New York State Taxi Federation.
"We must find a solution to these murders," said Fernando Mateo, president of NYS Taxi Federation. "Our drivers are scared, terrified."
