Cab Driver Is Killed, Left in Taxi Atop Canyon

A cab driver was robbed and shot to death and his body was left in a taxi perched on the lip of a canyon off Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles police said Friday.

There were no suspects and police said it was not clear if the driver was killed by a passenger or by someone who approached the cab.

The body of Mohsen Ghasemi, 30, of Hollywood was found about 11 p.m. Thursday after a passer-by saw his red, white and blue taxi above a steep drop-off about a quarter-mile west of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Detective Russ Kuster said. The cab was held back from the edge by a dirt ridge between the front and rear wheels, Kuster said.

Ghasemi, an Iranian who came to this country eight years ago and worked through the Independent Cab Co. of West Los Angeles, was found slumped over the steering wheel, shot in the upper body, Kuster said. Ghasemi’s wallet was missing, but it was not known how much money was stolen.

Ghasemi owned his own cab but took some dispatch calls from Independent. He primarily worked nights picking up fares at Sunset Boulevard hotels in West Hollywood.

The killing brought renewed calls from cab drivers and their organizations for improved safety. Ghasemi was the 27th Los Angeles cab driver to be slain in the last 20 years, city officials said.

“You drive a cab, you take your life into your own hands,” said Hassan Abebe, a cabbie who worked with Ghasemi. “Especially at night. The danger is there every night.”

Investigators did not know whether Ghasemi had driven a passenger to the spot where he was killed. Kuster said they had not ruled out the possibility that he stopped on Mulholland Drive because of car trouble and then was approached by his killers.

Kuster said two or more people are suspected of taking part in the killing. Afterward, the suspects apparently tried to push the cab off the shoulder of the road into the canyon to delay the discovery of the crime, but the car bottomed out on the dirt ridge and was left there.

Pat Maciekowich, a dispatcher for Independent Cab, said Ghasemi’s cab was equipped with a switch on its radio that could alert the company dispatch center to an emergency, but the switch was not used. She said that because most of Ghasemi’s business came from riders who flagged him down, there was no record of his last passenger.

Though it was unclear if Ghasemi was killed by a fare, his death brought new calls for greater protection for drivers from robbers who pose as passengers.

Kuster said Ghasemi’s car had no bulletproof glass partition between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat.

George Cuttrell, chief public utilities inspector for the city’s Department of Transportation, said the safety shield is not required by the city and only about 25 of the city’s 1,150 licensed cabs have them, usually purchased by the drivers themselves.

Cuttrell said the slaying of a cab driver Jan. 7 in Inglewood prompted the Board of Transportation Commissioners to begin exploring whether to require the shields in city-licensed taxis. The proposal is still under study.