Cab driver robbed in Tampa

TAMPA -- The rash of taxi cab violence in St. Petersburg appears to have spread across the bay.

The Tampa Police Department is looking for two suspects in an armed robbery of a taxi cab driver on Thursday morning, which ended in a knife fight inside the cab and the suspects running away.

Yellow Cab driver William Connolly, 45, of Spring Hill, picked up the two suspects (seen here from surveillance video) at the 7-Eleven at Old Pasco Road and State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel and brought them to Tampa, where they directed him to stop so one of the men in the cab could stop to pick up some money, according to TPD spokeswoman Andrea Davis.

When he returned a few minutes later, the other passenger -- who remained in the backseat -- grabbed Connolly by the neck while the other man pulled a folding knife on him and requested all his money, police said. Connolly fought back, grabbing the knife and stabbing the backseat passenger in the hand and causing both to run.

Connolly, who suffered a minor cut to the front of his neck, drove to a nearby gas station and reported the incident to police shortly after 7 a.m. Thursday.  The suspects are described as Hispanic males between the ages of 22 and 29, both last seen wearing white polo shirts and blue jeans.  One is described as 5'3" and 140 lbs. with black hair shaven and balding; the other is described as 5'5" and 160 lbs. with long black curly hair and a ponytail.

The robbery comes as cab drivers in St. Petersburg call for more protection after a dangerous few months on the job. Two taxi drivers have been killed while on duty since April, the most recent on Saturday, and a half-dozen others have been robbed.

Thomas Kaplan, Times Staff Writer

[Tampa Police Department]