Cabbie's cry jolts comrades after being shot

Cabbie's cry jolts comrades
By Eileen Kelley • ekelley@enquirer.com • October 28, 2008


The phone call first jolted Jay Austin from his bed.

"Richard’s been shot,” the caller blurted.

Austin then heard it for himself, when he heard the cries of a veteran cabbie come over the radio.

“I need help. I need help. I’ve been shot,” Austin heard Richard Reynolds plead over his cab’s radio.

Reynolds generally works the day hours – a shift that, by all accounts, tends to be safer. But wanting to pull in some extra cash, he picked up a Saturday evening shift.

At about 1 a.m. he was flagged down outside Newport on the Levee. His fare asked to be taken to Bond Hill.

Reynolds called in the ride, but after arriving in Bond Hill he was shot three to four times, said Austin.

The 37-year-old Covington man, who has been driving a cab for nearly as long as he’s had a driver’s license, was listed in critical condition Tuesday at University Hospital. He underwent six hours of surgery and is hooked up to a ventilator. He was shot in the chest and right arm.

“A cab driver is an easy mark,” said Reynolds, owner of Hilltop, a Florence-based cab company.

The small company of about 40 drivers is doing what it can to help the Reynolds family out. He did not have insurance and as a subcontractor, he doesn’t qualify for worker’s compensation.

Austin said the drivers have decided to kick in $5 a week, each week to help the family get by without Reynolds’ income. Austin said he will match their contributions.
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http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081028/NEWS0107/310280028