A string of taxi driver robberies between Central and South Trinidad turned fatal on Thursday night, when PH driver Kurt Levero was stabbed to death in Marabella.
Levero, 43, of Calcutta #3 Extension, Couva, was stabbed in the neck and hands while plying a Nissan Almera car for hire. As he lost consciousness, the car crashed into a parked van.
Two teenagers from Sixth Street, Marabella, who rushed to help the driver when they saw no one came out the car, made the chilling discovery.
One of the young men told the T&T Guardian yesterday that he and a friend were standing at the front of a shop on Sixth Street around 9.20 pm, when they noticed the car driving slowly down the street. He said the car crashed, but after two minutes or so when no one came out they decided to check to see if anyone was hurt.
“I said to myself, ‘wait nah, nobody coming out.’ I waited for about two minutes because the car was not going fast, it was going around 5 km/h, so I didn’t think anything was wrong. We walked across and when I looked inside I saw him (Levero) hanging over, with the seatbelt holding him up,” the young man, who did not want to be identified, said,
“He had stab wounds on his hands and blood running down the back of his head. We thought he was choking so we reclined his seat and put him to lean back. We called the ambulance and the people there told us not the touch him.”
Residents said Levero did not die immediately. They said it took the police about half of an hour to respond and by the time they arrived he was dead. The ambulance came 10 minutes after the police, they claimed.
Reports indicate that Levero’s car was recently stolen and he was working the Almera as a taxi for the owner, who lived in the Marabella area.
While police are still trying to find a motive for Levero’s killing, residents are offering the theory that it was a robbery turned fatal. The residents say quite a number of other taxi drivers have been held up and robbed in the area. They recalled an incident about one month ago, when a PH taxi driver ran to them for help, telling them he was held up by two men and taken to a dark and lonely area along Sixth Street Extension.
The Region Three Homicide Bureau is continuing investigations.