A 19-year-old Chicago man has been charged with murdering a cab driver in Evanston.
Police say Darien Lawrence Marquez Connerly, of 2005 W. Jarvis Ave., shot Leodis Blackburn in the head during an attempted robbery.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Blackburn picked up Connerly on Howard Street and drove him to the 500 block of Elmwood Avenue. Police say Connerly started to get out of the cab, then pulled a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun and demanded money. When Blackburn tried to drive off, Connerly allegedly shot him once in the head and ran off without getting any money.
Police later found Blackburn—still alive—early on May 15, his taxi crashed into a parked car. Paramedics took him to Saint Francis Hospital, where he died three days later.
Blackburn worked for Best Taxi for 10 years. His boss told the Sun-Times he had returned to driving cabs just a week before the shooting, after a stint as a dispatcher.
Connerly was out on parole for aggravated robbery at the time of the shooting. He is being held without bail until his next court date, scheduled for June 21 in Skokie.
