Police seek help; Details released of taxi's route

From the Kingston Whig-Standard website

Rob Tripp
Friday, June 22, 2007

Local News - A taxi passenger who killed a Kingston cabbie on Father's Day spent 14 and a half minutes from pickup to stabbing to getaway.

A detailed timeline of the killing of cabbie David Krick was released yesterday by police, along with other new details and in concert with an appeal for public help.

Police say they believe the 50-year-old Amey's cabbie was stabbed on Durham Street and left there to die by an attacker who stole his taxi, number 71, a white Chevrolet Impala.

No arrest has been made.

"I'm not going to comment on any suspects at this time," said Det. Bill Kennedy, who is in charge of the investigation.

Until now, police had not said definitively that Krick was stabbed on Durham Street, a short, mostly residential road that is parallel to and just south of Princess Street in midtown.

Kennedy confirmed what the Whig-Standard reported previously, that Krick likely was the victim of a random attack.

"A call comes into the taxi stand and a taxi is dispatched to it and they don't ask for any driver in particular, then you tell me, random, yeah," Kennedy said.

Krick accepted a dispatch at 6:33 a.m. Sunday to pick up a passenger on Wright Crescent near the YMCA. At the time, Krick was at the corner of Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard and Princess Street.

Another Amey's driver found Krick lying on the sidewalk in front of a home on Durham Street just before 7 a.m. He was bleeding profusely from several stab wounds to his chest.

He was pronounced dead at hospital.

Krick's taxi, smeared with blood on the right rear exterior, was abandoned roughly eight blocks away, at an apartment complex off Van Order Drive, where a suspect fled on foot, eluding pursuing police. The man was last seen by police fleeing south through the grounds of the An Clachan complex, a labyrinth of low-rise buildings on MacPherson Avenue.

Kennedy said police did not pursue the taxi.

"The taxi was parked when we came on it," he said. "There was no chase, there was no pursuit.

"We chased after a man running from it."

Kennedy could not say whether the suspect fled inside the buildings or ran through the complex.

"He disappeared," Kennedy said.

Investigators released a detailed map yesterday that traces the route Krick's taxi took that morning, based on satellite tracking data provided by the cab company.

All Amey's taxis are equipped with global positioning units that monitor location and speed.

The information shows that Krick picked up his passenger on Wright Crescent at 6:36 a.m., then headed east along Park Street to Durham. The trip took more than eight minutes for a relatively short distance.

Kennedy would not say if police have any information to indicate the significance of that time.

"They're just poking along," he said. "Who knows what was going on in the taxi at that time."

Krick pressed an emergency button in his cab at roughly 6:45 a.m., signalling to his dispatcher that he had a problem.

After Krick was stabbed, the suspect headed south on Victoria Street and jogged along other side streets all the way to Union, where he turned around and headed north on College to Brock, where he turned west and headed for the apartment complex.

The circuitous trip took roughly six minutes. If the suspect intended to travel to the apartment complex, he shunned more direct and faster routes.

Kennedy said he can't explain the strange path the taxi followed.

Amey's owner Mark Greenwood has said that his dispatcher was on the phone with police that morning, giving them a turn-by-turn account of the cab's movements.

Police ask that anyone who lives on the streets the taxi travelled, or who frequents the areas and believes they saw the car or has any other information, call them.

Kennedy said the taxi is still undergoing forensic analysis. He could not say how long it will take.

Police released a slightly more detailed description of a suspect; a white male, 20 to 30 years old, between five-foot-10 and six-foot-two tall, with a slim to medium build and short hair. He was possibly wearing a black shirt, jeans, and black shoes.

David Krick was to be buried this morning after a funeral at 11 a.m. in the chapel at Tompkins Funeral Home on Colborne Street.

rtripp@thewhig.com

Can you help?

Kingston Police are asking for public assistance to solve the slaying of cab driver David Krick, 50, who was stabbed to death Sunday.

Tips can be sent to: majorcrime@kpf.ca; call the major crime unit at 549-4660 or toll-free at 1-888-573-8477.