Knoxville police are looking for two men who are accused of attempting to
rob taxicab driver Ronald Layne, 60, with guns over the weekend.
Fast Service Taxi Manager Cheikh Seck said, "He's still shaken up and
doesn't even want to talk to people. He's scared. He knows he could have been
taken away from his family and his life could have ended with a bullet in the
back of his head."
Taxicab #6 is now filled with bullet holes and broken glass.
Police say Saturday around 4:00 a.m. Layne picked up the two men near
Prestwick Ridge Apartments, which is about five blocks away from Fast Service
Taxi's office. When the men got inside the taxi, Seck said Layne told him the
men, both armed with pistols, immediately demanded money.
Seck said, "Having two kids behind you and somebody pointing a gun at
you. Thank God they missed. I don't know how they did, but they did. They
missed him twice. When he pushed the guys is when they missed him. That's when
they were shooting."
A total of eight bullet holes can be seen on the minivan, including two
through the front windshield on the driver's side and one inside the taxicab
above the rear passenger's window.
Layne called Fast Service Taxi Dispatcher Lamont Hardwick for help.
Hardwick said, "He was frantic and hollering, 'They're shooting at me!
They're shooting at me!'"
Hardwick said he immediately called 911. Seconds later, the cab driver sped
into the company's parking lot.
"I looked out of the door and he had both car doors open, on a flat
tire, pulling into the parking lot," Hardwick said.
Fast Service Taxi's manager said the two gunmen hopped out of the taxicab
just after the shooting and got away with no money. Meanwhile, Layne escaped
with his life.
"He's lucky that he's alive. He could have been dead. It could have
been a different thing," Seck said.
Seck said Layne was not physically harmed in any way.
The description of the two gunmen is vague; however Knoxville police say they are following leads at this time.