More details on cab driver killing

Robbery a motive in cabbie slaying, police theorize

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Less than two years ago, a back injury ended Musharaf Poswal's 18-year career as a clerk and night-crew supervisor at a Richmond supermarket. To make ends meet, he began driving a cab in San Francisco, often reassuring his son over the phone that he was fine.

Before dawn Sunday, friends found Poswal, 48, slumped over the wheel of his blue Mazda pickup truck, parked behind his Yellow Cab on a Richmond street within sight of the El Cerrito police station. He had been shot numerous times and killed, moments after he ended his shift, authorities said.

As Richmond police looked for clues Monday in what they believe was a botched robbery, Poswal's family and friends gathered at his home in Rodeo, mourning the loss of the father of four sons and lamenting the latest instance of the slaying of a taxi driver.

"Everyone can tell you, he's a very respectable guy, a nice gentle man, very caring about others," said Poswal's son, Ali Poswal, 24, of San Jose. "He never had problems with anybody. I'm really shocked. It's unnecessary. I don't know what to think right now."

Right after Poswal's shift ended at about 4 a.m., a clerk at the Terrace Inn and Suites near San Pablo and Bayview avenues in El Cerrito reported hearing three shots, an employee said Monday. But Poswal's killing wasn't discovered until 6 a.m., when worried friends, wondering where he was, found the victim in his truck.

Richmond police haven't identified any suspects in the slaying, the city's 34th homicide so far this year, said Lt. Mark Gagan. "We haven't ruled out any motive, but it appears to be a robbery gone bad," Gagan said.

Investigators would not say whether they believe Poswal was killed by a passenger or someone who came up to him on the street.

Poswal usually parked his cab on Bayview Avenue; his relief driver, Shaukat Khan, 44, of El Sobrante, would then take it from there directly to San Francisco for his day shift.

"He's very nice. He treated me like a brother," Khan said. "I really miss him."

Ali Poswal said he often spoke to his father over the phone several times during his shift, sometimes as he had passengers in the back seat. The elder Poswal never reported any problems while on the job, he said.

"It's very, very sad for me," said Poswal's brother, Maqbool Ahmed, 55, of Fremont. "I was in a somber mood when I heard at 6 a.m. (Sunday)."

Ahmed said friends who found the body ran over to the El Cerrito police station across the street and were told to call Richmond police. Ahmed accused El Cerrito police of failing to respond, but El Cerrito police Cmdr. Michael Regan disputed that assertion Monday.

Regan said officers were initially told that there was a car with a broken window on the street. But during that same conversation, police learned that someone was in distress and immediately went to the scene, even as Richmond police were called, Regan said.

Poswal, a native of Pakistan, immigrated to the United States in 1980. He took a job at a Richmond plastics factory before becoming a clerk at a Lucky supermarket. Years later, he became a night supervisor when the store became an Albertsons.

He leaves behind his wife, four sons and four siblings.

The slaying underscores the dangers that cab drivers -- many of them immigrants from India or Pakistan -- face every day, authorities said. Taxi drivers were shot and killed in Richmond on Christmas Day last year and in 2003, the same year that one was fatally shot in Redwood City.

At the Richmond BART station Monday, the bruise under the left eye of cab driver Nirmal Rangi, 70, was still evident more than a week after he was attacked by a passenger after dropping him off in Vallejo. The man, who told Rangi he didn't have any money and just got out of jail, also bit him in the right arm, said Rangi, showing his bandage.

"I'm scared," Rangi said. But, he added, "There's no other job except to drive."

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

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EDIT 3:30 PM: HotCoCo finally opened up for us. Yet more details and things aren't looking so hot for El Cerrito PD...

Cab driver was shot to death, police say
RICHMOND: Co-worker finds body of man in truck that was parked near police station

By Karl Fischer and Tom Lochner
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

The body of a cab driver killed Sunday in Richmond across the street from a fire station likely sat in his personal vehicle for two hours before a co-worker found him, police said Monday.

Although detectives lack leads in the case, flashing lights and sirens from a fire engine leaving for an emergency call about 4:10 a.m. may have scared off whoever shot 48-year-old Musharaf Poswal, they said Monday.

Poswal, who lived in Rodeo, drove his cab in San Francisco. He worked from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. and parked the cab in the same place after every shift, where a different cabbie would take it for another shift, police said.

When the victim did not come home Sunday, his wife called another cabbie, who went to the corner of San Pablo and Bayview avenues and found the body a few minutes after 6 a.m., Detective Sgt. Mitch Peixoto said.

"It looks like he got out of the cab to move some belongings to his personal vehicle" when he was attacked, Peixoto said. "The cab was parked in front of his pickup."

The attacker shot him several times. Poswal locked himself inside his truck, where he died.

"Obviously, they knew who these people were, where they got off and on," said Harpreet Sandhu, a member of the Richmond Human Relations Commission and a longtime advocate for cabbie safety in West County. "This didn't happen by randomness."

Police found no obvious signs of robbery, detectives said, nor any obvious indicator of motive. The truck was parked on Richmond's side of San Pablo Avenue, across the street from the El Cerrito city offices, including the Police Department, City Hall and Fire Station 71.

The engine company responded to a call of a burning vehicle shortly after 4 a.m., detectives said, about the same time Poswal would have parked in his usual spot across the street.

Robbers have killed at least three other taxi drivers in the greater Richmond area since 1999 and wounded several others. Leaders at the Sikh temple in El Sobrante have repeatedly called on police and city government to provide more protection for drivers, as most cabbies in the area are Sikhs.

Sandhu said local cab drivers have been told to exchange their vehicles in "safe" places, which may explain why the victim chose a place so near the El Cerrito Police Department.

"This a place they do it every day," Sandhu said. "Somebody knew that this is where they change every day."

Poswal was not Sikh. He leaves behind two children.

The death was the 34th homicide reported this year in Richmond.

Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com. Reach Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760 or tlochner@cctimes.com.

HOW TO HELP
Police ask anyone with information about Sunday's killing of Musharaf Poswal to call Detective Terry Miles at 510-620-6860 or the anonymous tip line at 510-232-TIPS (232-8477).