Cab Driver Charged With Kidnapping Passenger
QUINCY (CBS) - A cab driver from Waltham faces kidnapping charges for allegedly not letting a woman out of his taxi over the weekend.
Police say Osei Kwame picked up a couple in Boston early Saturday morning.
He brought them to North Quincy, but police say Kwame took them to the wrong address.
An argument started and when one of the passengers got out of the cab to pay the fare, Kwame allegedly drove off with the woman still inside.
She called 911.
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Listen: 911 Call
Here is a partial transcript of the call:
Operator: 911, this line is recorded. What is your emergency?
Caller: Hi, please help me. I'm in a taxi that will not let me out of the taxi in Quincy.
Operator: OK. Where are you in Quincy?
Caller: I just passed Neponset and I was by Quincy Center, passing some fire station or gas station, I can't tell. Please help me. I'm at Furnace Brook Parkway. Please help, and they're driving really fast and they won't let me out of the taxi. Please help.
The woman yelled at the driver, "Let me out of this taxi!" and told the dispatcher "He's driving like 70 miles an hour."
Caller: I tried to get out. My friend got out of the taxi and he shut the door and he kept driving. He just kept driving. He won't let me out.
"He's running a red light," she continued. "This is crazy. He's not even stopping for the cops. Oh my God (crying). Please help me. Please help me."
An officer spotted the cab on the Neponset Bridge, stopped Kwame and arrested him.
The woman stayed on the line and thanked the 911 dispatcher profusely.
Kwame is charged with kidnapping, operating to endanger, and failure to stop for police.
He was arraigned Monday in Quincy District Court and ordered held on $750 bail.
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WBZ News Radio's Kim Tunnicliffe reports on the alleged kidnapping
Kwame's relatives and his defense attorney claim the passengers did not want to pay, so Kwame turned on his "trouble lights" and was heading back to where he picked them up.
"He's a good person, a Christian person and a responsible person," Kwame's friend William Kwakye-Drkwah told WBZ-TV.
Top Cab in Revere released this statement about Kwame: "Osei Kwame is one of the top drivers in our fleet, he is honest and one of the most reliable people in our fleet. We want to see how it plays out in the courts. We have talked with him and we have no comment on what happened that night."