Colorado Springs – A stray bullet fired during a downtown shootout between two groups struck a cab driver in the head, killing him instantly as he drove past the site of the gun battle.
Terry L. Wilson, 53, who had driven one year for Yellow Cab, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police Lt. Rafael Cintron said the gunfight broke out about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 300 block of East Pikes Peak Avenue.
Wilson was driving southbound on Wahsatch Avenue when the bullet struck him. He had no passengers with him.
Callers to 911 said they heard 10 to 15 shots, although police said there were no known witnesses to the shooting.
Cintron said he did not know how many people were involved in the shootout and that investigators did not know whether any of them had been at nearby nightclubs before the shooting.
“We don’t have what we would consider good suspect information at this time, not even something that we could release as far as description, unfortunately,” Cintron said. “We’re relying on Crime Stoppers because, right now, we do not have a whole lot.”
In the past decade, Colorado Springs’ downtown has been revitalized with trendy new restaurants and bars.
“We have, from time to time, shots-fired calls where somebody is shooting,” Cintron said. “But to have an actual gun battle between two groups is uncommon. Gun battles are uncommon, and certainly uncommon downtown.”
South of downtown at the Lamplighter Mobile Home Park, where cab driver Wilson made a home with his girlfriend, Zoanna Tyma, 56, there was disbelief.
Tyma said Wilson worked Wednesday, came home about 8 p.m. and then went back on the road about 9:30 p.m.
“I gave him a hug,” she said. “I said, ‘Take it easy, have a good night, be careful,’ like I always did.”
She said she worried about him driving a cab at night.
“You never could tell what’s going to happen around the corner, and it only takes a matter of minutes, excuse my language, for the whole night to turn like hell,” Tyma said.
She said Wilson was the father of four children, the youngest of whom is 13.
He enjoyed driving a cab.
“I think people fascinated him,” Tyma said. “You know how some people are. He met some real winners.”
On his off hours, he enjoyed watching “CSI,” professional wrestling and cartoons.
“He’s a big kid at heart. He liked cartoons. … He was always making me laugh. We had a good time just being together. We didn’t have to go out,” Tyma said.
“I cannot believe he is gone, I really can’t.”
News of Wednesday’s shootout alarmed some downtown businesspeople, who have noticed graffiti scrawled on the walls of downtown buildings.
“If you see graffiti, that is a sign of gangs,” said Loraine Nigbur, a hairdresser at The Gallery, in the 300 block of East Pikes Peak Avenue.
“It concerns me,” Nigbur said.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
