Suspect sought in Ottawa cabbie robbery
Last Updated: Thursday, April 19, 2007 | 7:56 AM ET
CBC News
Ottawa police are looking for a man who held up a taxi driver at gunpoint and stuffed him in the trunk nearly two weeks ago.
The man got into the Blue Line taxi around 11:30 p.m. April 7 on St. Laurent Boulevard and asked the driver to take him to Rockland, police said in a news release Tuesday.
Along the way, the passenger asked the driver, Ali Elbadry, to stop the cab. He put a gun to Elbadry's head, demanded money, and tied him up in the trunk of the taxi.
The man then drove the cab around for a few minutes before parking it on Sylvester Street and vanishing, police said.
Elbadry was able to get out of the trunk by pushing down the car's back seat.
The man was 20 to 25 years old, about six feet tall, clean-shaven with almond-shaped eyes and short black hair. He may be known as Alex, police said.
Although Elbadry went to the police right away, Blue Line president Hanif Patni said drivers were not told about the robbery until Tuesday because the police asked him to keep it quiet.
"Police obviously had information which they felt that they could use to apprehend the individual if they could, rather than … providing all the drivers with this information," Patni told CBC News.
However, investigating officer Det. Richard McIntosh denied telling the company to keep the incident from the other drivers.
He only wanted to get a more detailed description of the robber before the information was passed on, he said.
