Angry cab rider kills driver

BAGUIO CITY — Another kind of road rage happened here before dawn on Sunday when a taxi driver was hammered to death by his teenage passenger along Dominican Road.

The driver was identified as Erwin Cueno, 48.

According to the suspect, he hit Cueno on the head with the hammer he was bringing home because he did not like the driver’s tone of voice.

“I just didn’t like his tone of voice,” he said.

The teenage suspect, 18 years old, said that he takes a hammer from his work at a construction site, as he uses it to ward off dogs in their village.

“I use it when I walk home because there are many dogs around,” the suspect said.

Investigators, however, are not buying his explanation as they believe that the teenager may have wanted to rob the driver.

“Maybe he was trying to rob the driver, but that happened,” Chief Inspector Eddie Bagto, BCPO Station 1 commander said.

The suspect was arrested inside the taxi after residents alerted the authorities, police said.

“He was caught right away because of the residents’ help and the police’s immediate action,” he added.

He urged taxi drivers to put a dashcam inside their vehicles with a memory card and advised them to bring suspicious-looking persons to the police station.

The victim was a driver in Baguio for 18 years. His body will be brought to his hometown in Atok, Benguet.