Cabbie Tackles Man Who Shot Him

Getting shot several times in his face, neck and back didn't mean one cab driver was going to take a robbery sitting down.

On Saturday, a would-be robber apparently called for a taxi in Waukegan for a ride to Zion, but at some point during the trip, he pulled out a gun and tried to rob the driver, according to police. Sitting in the taxi's back seat, the man opened fire on the driver, who then jumped into the rear seat of the cab and struggled with his attacker.

Police responded to the shooting around 3:11 a.m. and found the 44-year-old cab driver lying on top of Darryel J. Garner, pinning him down until the officers took the suspect into custody. The cab, a Metro Cab, was stopped in the front yard against a house in the 3100 block of Lebanon Avenue.

The cab driver was shot in the left, right and back sides of his neck, in his lower lip and jaw, and in the upper middle portion of his back.

Gardner, who told officers he had been out of work and depressed, later told detectives that he shot the driver several times intending to rob him, the release said. Garner, 38, of Waukegan, was charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, both Class X felonies, according to a Zion police release.

The Zion Fire Department transported the cab driver to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, but the man was later taken to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville where was in “stable” condition in the intensive care unit being evaluated for surgery Saturday.

Police recovered a small caliber 5-shot revolver containing five empty shell casings in the rear seat of the cab, and found a bullet hole in the windshield directly in front of the drivers seat, the release said.