Sacramento taxi drivers and police are asking for the public's help in finding a man who robbed a cab driver at gunpoint this morning.
Mohammad Akhtar, 55, said he was punched in the face, then ordered to the ground at gunpoint by an unknown man about 4:15 a.m. in Meadowview.
Akhtar said the suspect stole about $400 from his pocket, his cell phone and his taxi van, leaving him stranded. Akhtar said he knocked on the front door of a nearby home and asked for help.
He described his attacker as Asian and about 25 to 30 years old. He said he heard the man speaking in another language.
Akhtar said he picked the man and three women up at a home on 12th Avenue. He drove them to the 7400 block of Loma Verde Way in Meadowview, where the women got out. The man stayed with Akhtar for about 15 to 20 minutes, the cab driver said, before the robbery took place.
The stolen taxi van is a 2004 Chevrolet Venture with a yellow body and red roof, like the one pictured at left.
About a dozen fellow cab drivers came out to support Akhtar at an informal press conference outside the downtown Sacramento Hyatt, a popular area for taxis.
"His family is shaken, he is shaken," said Kazman Zaidi, vice president of the Sacramento Taxicab Association. "We are really shaken."
Zaidi asked for the public to respect and support taxi cab drivers, especially during the busy holiday season.
"We can't refuse anybody. It's against the law," he said. "They are taking advantage of our kindness."
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP.
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