What we know about the Back Bay shooting that left a taxi driver dead
Phillip Foy, 34, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, allegedly shot Luckinson Oruma because Oruma wouldn't drive him to Mansfield.
Phillip Foy wanted a ride to Mansfield, prosecutors say.
But when he hopped in a taxi near the Prudential Center Tuesday morning, its driver, 60-year-old Luckinson Oruma, refused to take him there, officials said.
“You’re going to move this cab or I’m gonna move you,” Foy allegedly told him, according to The Boston Globe.
Moments later, after Oruma refused again, Foy got out of the car, pulled Oruma from the driver’s seat, and shot him repeatedly, officials allege. Oruma was brought to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The details frame the case against Foy, 34, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, who was arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Wednesday, a day after the Huntington Avenue shooting rattled the city’s taxi industry and brought the bustling Back Bay thoroughfare to a standstill.
Foy, charged with murder, armed carjacking, and unlawful possession of a firearm, was held without bail, according to the Suffolk Country District Attorney’s Office.
Oruma, a father of five, was a veteran driver, having spent at least eight years behind the wheel.
“I just hope this person does his time for the crime he committed and hopefully he finds peace,” Oruma’s 28-year-old son, Jeffrey, told WCVB. “I just hope he’s able to live with it, and, hopefully, God forgives him for whatever he did.”
Here’s what we know about the case:
Foy allegedly stole the taxi before abandoning it — and a gun — on Ring Road
Police investigate on Ring Road after the shooting on Huntington Avenue.
According to the Globe, prosecutors say Foy exited the Massachusetts Avenue MBTA station and headed to Oruma’s cab, parked in front of the Colonnade Hotel at 120 Huntington Ave.
Oruma refused to drive Foy to Mansfield twice before Foy allegedly got out of the taxi and shot him, the newspaper reports.
Foy then stood over Oruma in the street and shot him multiple times, officials allege.
Police said they responded to a radio report of the shooting around 10:58 a.m. and found Oruma suffering from life-threatening injuries at the scene. He was declared dead at the hospital.
Foy allegedly commandeered the taxi and drove to nearby Ring Road where he left the car, a gun, and his shoes on the ground, Assistant District Attorney John Verner said Wednesday.
Police, with civilians directing officers, found Foy sitting on a table in front of the Shaw’s supermarket, according to Verner.
Foy gave ‘basically a full confession’ to police, prosecutors say
Phillip Foy gets taken into custody Tuesday.
At the police station, Verner said Foy told authorities “basically a full confession to what happened,” the Globe reports.
John Hayes, Foy’s attorney, said Foy was charged with a motor vehicle offense in 2015. Aside from that, Hayes said only that Foy has not run into trouble with authorities since “the early 2000’s,” according to the Globe.
Oruma’s family members and Foy’s supporters were in the courthouse Wednesday but did not speak to reporters.
One male relative of Oruma though, stood up and said, “Thank you, Your Honor, he’s a coward,” after Foy was held without bail, the newspaper reports.
He is set to appear in court again on July 9, according to the district attorney’s office.
Oruma’s family says he was a hardworking father, ‘a great man’
Six days a week, Oruma would take to the driver’s seat of his taxi and maneuver the streets of Boston between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m., according to the Globe.
He used his pay to make sure his five children got an education, his family said.
“It’s so sad this had to happen to him. He was such a hardworking man. He put all of us through college. We all went to UMass Boston,” his son, Jeffrey Oruma, told the Boston Herald. “He always told me to work hard for the things you want and be kind to people.
“He was a great man,” he added. “He had four boys and one girl. He brought our mom over from Nigeria — all from driving a taxi.”
Luckinson Oruma drove cab No. 192 for USA Garage, part of the Independent Taxi Operators Association, in Dorchester, General Manager Eddie Summers told the Globe.
“He was a super guy, a very easygoing guy,” Summers said. “Never in a bad mood.”
Joe Litvack, a treasurer at the association, told the newspaper the shooting is jarring for Boston’s taxi industry.
“It’s upsetting for all of us to see a working man head out of his house in the morning and not go home,” he told the newspaper Tuesday. “It’s the worst thing for a working man.”
A GoFundMe campaign to help support the Oruma family was established Wednesday by Litvack.
“On Tuesday morning June 4th, 2019 Luckinson Oruma went to work like every other day, only today he was gunned down and car jacked of his taxi cab,” the page reads. “Luckinson was earning a living just like the rest of the world on a daily basis, only at the end of today’s shift, he is not going home to his family.”
Later in the afternoon, donations totaled over $6,500.
Princewill Oruma, another of Oruma’s sons, told WBZ he hopes his father didn’t suffer.
“Trying to shop for a good gift for my father for Father’s Day, but at this point, I’ll be shopping for funeral homes,” he said.
