This page is dedicated to Mr. Brian Mann and family. Mr. Mann was a fellow cab driver in Phoenix, AZ who was murdered Friday November 19, 2010. The incident is heartbreaking and I want to ensure his 5 year old child does not miss Christmas.

NEWS ARTICLE

PHOENIX – Police have released more details in a Friday shooting in Phoenix that left a cab driver dead.

Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said the cab driver, 37-year-old Brian Mann was shot and killed around 6 a.m. Friday near Glendale Avenue and Interstate 17.

Thompson said Mann was dispatched to a convenience store around 19th and Glendale avenues to pick up 33-year-old Corletha Sherie Davis and transport her to the apartment complex where the shooting happened.

When Mann was shot, he fell out of the driver’s side door into the road, Thompson said.

Witnesses saw Davis get out of the rear seat of the cab after the shooting and calmly walk into the apartment complex, Thompson said.

Thompson said one of the witnesses started following Davis into the apartment complex as Davis turned around and started reaching for her waistband.

No weapon was seen, but the witness reportedly felt threatened and stopped following her.

Police set up a perimeter and called in a special tactical team before locating Davis in an apartment with her boyfriend.

Police took both of them into custody.

The motive for the shooting is unknown at this time, Thompson said.

Discount Cab issued a statement Friday morning saying their thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the driver.

Discount Cab Statement

“We are saddened by the loss of one of our independent contractors this morning. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our driver.

Discount Cab works hard to ensure the safety of all its drivers and passengers. We are working closely with the Phoenix Police Department to provide any information that will help them in their ongoing investigation.

Given the Phoenix Police Department’s open and ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”

An account has been set up at any Wells Fargo Bank, account number 2706105109. It is called “Phoenix Cab Driver Memorial Fund.”

(article source:abc15.com)

Phoenix, AZ–Eric Ross, a Phoenix, AZ Cab Driver and Executive Producer of www.livetaxis.com is stepping in to help ensure that Brian Mann’s son won’t miss Christmas.

“I am personally donating the first $50.00 to start this drive,” says Ross.

Brian Mann, a Phoenix area Taxicab driver was murdered November 19, 2010 at the beginning of his shift in Phoenix, AZ.

The job of being an independent contractor taxi driver is not easy and does come with some dangers.

Ross, a former state trooper says, “At times you may pick up someone that gives you the creeps”, but most of the time people are only going from point A to point B.

After reading an article about Brian Manns family members having to host a car wash to raise funds to help with his burial expenses, I felt it was the right thing to do, start a toy drive for the child.

Brian Manns child deserves to have a nice Christmas.

“What breaks my heart”, says Ross, “I do the same thing (drive taxi), and I also have a son, and I can’t imagine what this kid is going through, but he deserves a nice Christmas.”

Www.livetaxis.com has a Brian Mann Memorial page set up where you can make an online donation.

Any excess donations will be contributed to the Phoenix Childrens Hospital in Phoenix.

You can also email eric@livetaxis.com with any questions.

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An NYPD cop returning home from work was killed early Monday when his car was struck by a boozed-up Brooklyn man driving the wrong way on Long Island, authorities said.

Officer Andre Menzies – a father of five – was on the Northern State Parkway in Suffolk County about 12:05 a.m. when Michael Bowen – heading west in the eastbound lanes – barreled into him, authorities said.

“It was a head-on crash,” Tom Magno, assistant chief of the Dix Hills Volunteer Fire Department, told the Daily News. “He was probably killed on impact.”

New York State troopers got a report of a wrong-way motorist on the parkway but couldn’t track down Bowen before tragedy struck, Magno added.

Menzies, a nine-year NYPD veteran, was assigned to the Housing Bureau in Queens. He lived in North Babylon, L.I., with his wife and two children, ages 9 and 7.

He also had three daughters – ages 12, 14 and 15 – with his first wife, who passed away. The girls live with Menzies’ father in Queens.

“We’re just in shock. Nobody can believe it,” said his father, Robert Menzies, 58. “It just hasn’t sunk in – and it’s just going to get harder in the coming weeks.”

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly expressed his condolences to Menzies’ family. “His young children are left without a father as a result of a senseless accident,” Kelly said in a statement.

Bowen, 50, of Brownsville, was busted for driving while intoxicated and reckless driving, authorities said. He flunked a field sobriety test, Mayor Bloomberg said at City Hall.

Bowen, who was driving a Ford van, was treated at an area hospital for minor injuries.

“He had very few scratches,” Magno said.

Bowen is married with two young children, a neighbor said. He started working about two weeks ago as a technician for American Security Systems, the company’s president told The News.

The deadly crash occurred in Dix Hills, just east of the exit for Wolf Hill Rd. State police are investigating where Bowen got onto the highway.

Menzies once dreamed of playing professional basketball. He played hoops in college, including a stint on the team at Lehman College in the Bronx, his father said. He was fond of teaching his 14-year-old daughter, Melissa, the game he loved, his father said.

Menzies was the second NYPD officer killed in a traffic accident on Long Island in as many weeks.

Officer Fred Barraza, 33, died early Thursday when he lost control of his car and slammed into a tree in Westbury, police said. His passenger, Jose Valdevenito, 35, was ejected from the car and suffered serious injuries.

Bloomberg railed against the dangers of drunken driving, and also referred to the City Island, Bronx, crash on Saturday night that seriously injured Emily Sexton, 17.

Emily was standing on a sidewalk about a block from her home when cops say a liquored-up Florida man pulled a U-turn in a pickup truck and jumped the curb, slamming into her and pinning her against a building.

“This is just another tragic reminder of the deadly danger of drunk driving,” Bloomberg said.

“So make no mistake about it: We are determined to stop drunk driving now – before the holiday season gets into full swing,” Bloomberg added. “We don’t want any more of this kind of carnage.”

(source:nydailynews.com)

Heavy boozing has caused a shocking spike in drunken injuries and emergency room visits in New York, a troubling new study says.

Nearly 74,000 people wound up in hospitals in 2009 for alcohol-related reasons, compared with just 22,000 in 2003 – a jump of nearly 250%, said the city Health Department study, which was released yesterday.

“Excessive alcohol use in general is a serious problem,” said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley. “The data suggest that the problem is getting worse.”

Hard drinkers wind up in the ER for reasons ranging from alcohol poisoning to barroom fights and drunken spills.

While the majority of alcohol-related deaths in New York – 1,537 adults in 2008 – resulted from health problems, the study said, a solid proportion were caused by accidents, suicides and homicides.

The top boozing neighborhoods, with more than 4% of their overall emergency room visits linked to alcohol, are Greenwich Village, Murray Hill and Chelsea in Manhattan; Bay Ridge and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and the northeastern stretches of Queens.

“A lot of bars have a lot of fights,” noted John Connors, a 55-year-old transit worker slugging back Buds in Bay Ridge. “At one time there were 363 bars in this neighborhood – I know, I counted them.”

Staten Island, central Brooklyn, the northeast Bronx and the Rockaways in Queens had the lowest number of alcohol-related hospital trips.

Among adult drinkers surveyed by the Health Department, 42% acknowledge binge drinking – defined as slugging back five or more drinks in a sitting. Eleven percent describe themselves as heavy drinkers.

“On a Monday afternoon you can end up with a full bar – look at this one,” Connors said pointing to the more than 15 patrons bending elbows at Kelly’s Tavern yesterday afternoon.

“I got here at about 2 p.m. and I’ll be here until about 4 a.m.”

Health officials said the data did not explain why the emergency room figures had shot up so much. Farley noted that the general thinking was that heavy drinkers were less likely to end up in the emergency room.

“This is not normally alcoholics, but moderate drinkers who had too much to drink,” he said.

The pattern was similar for adults and underage drinkers.

For those younger than 21, the number of hospital visits shot up to 4,000 in 2009 from 1,000 in 2003, with the peaks seen in many of the same neighborhoods where adult alcohol-related visits rose.

The stats were released as the State Liquor Authority successfully pressured local beverage distributors to stop selling the controversial Four Loko caffeinated alcohol brew here.

(source:nydailynews.com)

Sonoma County’s agricultural commissioner kept a low profile Monday following her arrest over the weekend on suspicion of drunken driving and resisting arrest.

Cathy Neville arrived for work Monday but stayed only a couple of hours before leaving.

A county spokesman said the 53-year-old ag commissioner was not expected at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, even though county officials could vote to sharply reduce her authority. That discussion was underway prior to her arrest.

In a brief interview on Monday, Neville did not address her arrest but instead spoke about the department she was appointed to lead in December 2008. She claimed credit for growing the department’s budget by $2 million and for hiring 20 more people.

“There are a lot of positive things happening with that department,” she said.

But that assessment has been overshadowed by Neville’s arrest, including newly released details on Monday that it took two CHP officers to arrest Neville, after one of the officers tackled her to the ground.

A CHP officer had stopped Neville on Highway 116 near Frei Road outside Graton at about 9 p.m. Friday after spotting Neville’s Nissan Sentra weaving and drifting to the side of the road, the CHP said.

When Neville attempted to flee during a field sobriety test, the officer called for assistance in dealing with the ag commissioner, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 125 pounds, according to the CHP.

The officer tackled Neville to the ground when another officer arrived to help put her in handcuffs.

Neville was booked into the Sonoma County Jail, where she posted bond on $5,000 bail and was released.

On Saturday, Neville went to the county animal shelter to retrieve her dogs — a border collie named Mr. Bojangles and a cattle dog named Diego — that had been in the car with her at the time of her arrest and were taken into custody by an animal control officer.

Neville is due to appear in court on Sept. 30 to learn whether the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office is filing formal charges in the case. She could face up to a year in jail if convicted of misdemeanor drunken driving and resisting arrest, Assistant District Attorney Diana Gomez said.

Neville already was under the microscope prior to Friday for her controversial decision to fire Amy Cooper, the former director of the county’s Animal Care and Control Division.

Cooper’s dismissal on July 12, two days before her yearlong probationary status was to expire, caused an uproar among animal control employees and sparked a county-led investigation.

County Administrator Veronica Ferguson announced last week that she wanted supervisors to approve moving animal care to the Department of Public Health, a move Ferguson characterized as a matter of operational efficiency and not a sign that she has lost faith in Neville’s managerial abilities.

The move would reduce the ag commissioner’s $8.67 million budget and 63 employees by about half.

Ferguson on Saturday described Neville’s arrest as a “private matter” for the ag commissioner to handle herself.

She said the county has a policy against employees drinking on the job or while reporting to work, but said that those rules do not apply in Neville’s case because it occurred after work hours.

However, Ferguson said prior to Neville’s arrest that she would be evaluating the ag commissioner’s job performance.

A county spokesman said Monday said that Neville is considered an “unclassified” county employee, which means she does not fall under the protections of the county civil service ordinance. She was hired by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and any discliplinary action, up to and including termination, is a decision of the board, the spokesman said.

Neville’s four-year term as commissioner expires in December 2012. She earns $132,000 annually, not including health benefits, a car allowance and other perks.

California’s ag commissioners also are licensed by the state, and according to law, can can be stripped of the license for “neglect of duty, incompetence or misconduct in office” following a hearing.

Ferguson did not respond to a query Monday as to whether the county will seek disciplinary action against Neville related to her arrest. None of the five members of the board of supervisors returned calls seeking comment.

A spokesman for the Department of Food and Agriculture also declined comment Monday.

(SOURCE:watchsonomacounty)