NORCROSS, Ga. — Norcross police are investigating the killing of a taxicab driver.
According to police, 36-year-old Afolabi Odifa was found slumped over behind the wheel of his taxi in front of 800 Chase Common Drive in Norcross at 11 p.m. Friday.
Medical examiners said he had been shot in the head.
Kelly Spain told Channel 2’s Liz Artz she was sitting on an upstairs balcony at the Spring Lake Apartments as she watched Odifa's taxi cab come to a slow stop behind several cars. She told Artz the head lights remained on and the car sat running for hours with no activity.
At first she said she didn't think anything of it, but when no one came or went from the cab she and a friend crossed the parking lot to check it out.
“We think that he's dead,” said Spain. “We didn't get a response, compressions in his neck from breathing."
Spain said she heard gunfire not in the complex, but in the vicinity, but she did not see anyone approach the cab.
She said she believes Odifa was shot beforehand and drove up to the complex.
The 36-year-old had only been driving a taxi for three months.
Odifa, originally from Nigeria, became a U.S. citizen last year, according to his friends and family members.
They said he and his new wife had moved to the U.S. just six months ago with their 9-month-old baby boy.
Odifa’s wife Toyin told Artz her husband left for a call around 10 Friday night and never returned. She said the call was just 3 miles from their home.
Toyin said she had no idea what happened to her husband until she got a call from police on Saturday.
“When we got to the station we found out he was dead. They shot him dead,” said Toyin.
Norcross investigators handed the case over to the Georgia Bureau of investigation.
Police say it’s unclear whether Odifa was shot during a robbery of if the call for a cab was legitimate or a possible setup.
“He doesn’t fight. He’s easygoing so I don’t know what happened,” Toyin told Artz.
“I need justice to the person. The person that killed Afolabi has to go to jail. I need justice,” said Toyin.
By phone, Artz spoke with Odifa’s manager at his cab company. The man told Artz he had never had an experience like this and is devastated.
Ferguson Ekpenisi was a good friend of Odifa’s and drove a cab for the same company.
He said Odifa got him in the taxi business and he thinks cabs need to be equipped with cameras.
He told us it's a dangerous job, and the shooting death of his good friend is too much.
“I'm quitting from the job,” he told Artz. “After this I can't continue. The risk is too much because you don't know who you're picking (up)."
Detectives are also gathering phone records and information from the cab company to determine who may have called for a taxi, then shot and killed the driver.
Police went door to door and stopped all cars leaving the complex this Saturday morning asking anyone if they saw anything. They also dusted the area for prints.
Police said there are no suspects at this time, but they are following numerous leads.
Anyone with information in the case is urged to call Norcross police or the GBI.
WSBTV
