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Published on Tuesday, November 4, 2003
in the St. Petersburg Times
To Elliott Arman, the bearded man who climbed into the back of his cab was a routine fare.
That was, until the man demanded money and jammed a gun into Arman's side.
"At that point, I was going 55 to 60 mph," Arman said later. "Now I'm driving 70 to 80."
Before its end, the ordeal Monday would involve a struggle in the cab, a carjacking and a police chase through central Pasco that ended in a Wesley Chapel neighborhood.
Arman, a Tampa taxi driver, had been dispatched to pick up a fare about 11:20 a.m. at the RaceTrac on Bearss Avenue.
When he arrived, the man was standing next to a pay phone. He climbed in the back of the cab, put a knapsack on the seat beside him and told Arman he wanted to go to Lutz so he could look for his car.
Arman put the cab in drive and started the meter, he said later. The customer wanted him to drive from Florida Avenue to U.S. 41. By the time the cab reached Crenshaw Lake, the meter registered more than $10.
That's when the man told Arman to turn over his wallet and his money.
Arman, a 50-year-old former Tampa police officer, said he had no money.
Then he felt the gun in his ribs. Then the bearded man aimed it at his head. It looked like .45-caliber weapon.
"I heard him say "I'll shoot you,' " Arman said.
The man kept repeating the threat as Arman drove north. Arman said the man hit him in the face with the gun as he drove erratically.
Arman kept driving until he reached a Pasco County sheriff's substation on State Road 54.
With the taxi still in drive, "I'm grabbing the gun and he's fighting with me," Arman said. Arman tried to put the cab in park as the tug of war over the gun continued.
Arman said he just kept thinking, "I don't want to get shot."
"I'm always scared," said Arman, who has driven a cab since 1988 and was stabbed by a fare 10 years ago. He said he stays in shape to aid in self-defense.
"I don't work out for nothing," said Arman, who was treated for bruises on his foot and face and released from a hospital Monday night.
Arman jumped out of the white Kia, and the attacker sped away in the car. Arman waved and yelled for help. A state Department of Transportation officer picked him up.
Arman told the officer,"Let's go after him."
Meanwhile, thanks to a joint communications system - through which DOT officers began transmitting over stations shared by the Florida Highway Patrol six months ago - troopers heard the frantic call.
They spread out between Land O'Lakes and Wesley Chapel, said patrol Lt. R.C. French.
Sheriff's Deputy Erica Fernandez got the alert and did the same.
Trooper Mark Conner was the first to see the taxi. He saw the cab parked at a gas pump at the Shell station on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard just south of State Road 56.
Conner pulled into the parking lot and eased in behind the empty taxi.
"We thought he was inside pulling off an armed robbery," French said.
The suspect likely wasn't there for gas. The taxi's tank sat opposite the pumps.
But before he could buy anything in the food mart, the suspect, standing at the entrance, noticed the trooper's car, French said.
"He bolted through the trees," French said.
And across a four-lane highway. And over a rooftop in the Lakes of Northwood community.
Trooper Conner ran off after him, along with Trooper Mark Boatright.
Deputy Fernandez pulled over and joined the foot chase, cutting her leg on a barbed-wire fence.
None of them could have known what the man had done with the gun.
Trooper Henry Cichoski, who had sped up to the scene, intercepted the suspect in the grass, the trooper recalled.
"I drew on him," Cichoski said, aiming his weapon and ordering the man to the ground.
He obeyed. The troopers grabbed him and put handcuffs on him, they said. Authorities found the weapon, which turned out to be a pellet gun, in the cab.
Arrested was Earl Johnson, 38, of Fort Lauderdale, according to the Sheriff's Office. Jail records show he faces the following charges: carjacking, attempted armed robbery, aggravated battery and false imprisonment, fleeing to elude law enforcement, as well as charges relating to the stolen vehicle.
His arrest record includes a drug conviction.
Johnson remained in the Land O'Lakes jail Monday afternoon in lieu of $330,000 bail.
After authorities tracked down Johnson and put him into the back of a trooper's car, Arman circled the cab in the gas station parking lot.
The meter read $42.90, he saw. "And it's still running."
Arman was glad to get his cab back.
"I have to pay $82 a day for this cab," he said.