Chicago

‘It's Just Sad': Cab Driver Shot While Picking Up Passenger in Chicago

A cab driver was hospitalized Wednesday morning after being shot during a pickup on Chicago’s West Side.

The 58-year-old was shot in the chest while picking up a passenger just after 1 a.m. in the 700 block of North Avers in the Garfield Park neighborhood, police said.

The driver, who family members identified as Talal Kurdieh, managed to flee the scene to St. Louis and Chicago in Humboldt Park, where he then stopped for help.

He was transported to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in stable condition, police said.

“He got a pickup and instead of a guy coming into the car he actually said it was a strong armed robbery and he tried to kill my father,” said the victim’s son Abed Kurdieh, who rushed to his father’s side.

The husband and father of four called his sons from the hospital to tell them what happened.

“He called me at 1:30 and he told ‘I’m in the hospital, get your brother and let him know,’” son Zade Kurdieh.

Once there, he told his sons the shooting is simply “a bump in the road.”

“My father don’t mean no harm to nobody. He’s simply out there trying to make some money, bring it to the house,” Abed Kurdieh said.

Family members said Kurdieh doesn’t normally pick up rides in areas he feels could be dangerous, but business has been so slow, he “can’t reject it no more.”

“It’s just sad,” Abed Kurdieh said. “I love Chicago so much but it gives you every reason to want to leave.”

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