Taxi driver shot outside empty Tampa home | News

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Taxi driver shot outside empty Tampa home

Submitted by Grayson Kamm, Multi-Media Journalist

Monday, December 9th, 2013, 2:35pm

Topics: News

Tampa, Florida -- Police are trying to identify two men who are believed to have shot and killed a taxi cab driver in Tampa's Sulphur Springs neighborhood.

A neighbor found 56-year-old John Dooley dead in his taxi, outside an abandoned home on Sunday night. Police won't say right now whether this was an attempted robbery or something else.

Officers say a neighbor was driving near N. 18th Street and Humphrey Street when he saw the taxi parked along the side of a house the neighbor knew was vacant.

That neighbor got concerned and got out of his own car to walk up and talk to the driver. But as he got close, he could tell the driver was dead. The neighbor called the police.

Investigators arrived and determined Dooley had been shot. Detectives and patrol officers swept the Sulphur Springs neighborhood, just southwest of Busch Gardens, asking people what they may have seen or heard.

Detectives spent hours studying the yellow taxi and the area around it. "And now they're garnering whatever information they can from the available people that were out here," Tampa Police Lt. Richard O'Connor said.

"I think that we're limited as far as witnesses were concerned."

Police say two men called for a taxi around 7:45 p.m. and Dooley picked them up in his cab. While the suspects were en route to their destination, police say they shot the victim and fled the scene.

Police have not released a description of the suspects, nor are they sure what the suspects' final destination was.

Crime Stopperes is offering a cash reward of up to $3,000 for anonymous tips from the public that can lead to an arrest.

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