Taxi drivers mourn slain colleague

Taxi drivers in the Halifax region are shaken up after a colleague was stabbed to death on Christmas Day.

Police officers found Ken Purcell, 62, in his vehicle at about 8 a.m. Sunday in the Main Street and Caledonia Road area of Dartmouth.

He had apparently called his dispatch centre and told them he had been stabbed.

Purcell had been driving cabs for Bob's and Bluebell taxis in Dartmouth for almost four decades. Colleagues say he made a point of being careful, especially after he was robbed at gunpoint five years ago.

"He would never argue or fight with anybody. He was a good person," said Calvin DeMont, Purcell's boss and landlord.

Cab driver George Cooper, who knew Purcell for 38 years, said he spoke to him just a few hours before he was killed.

"You pick up somebody, you take them to where they want to go, and next thing you know, you're in big trouble. That's what happened to Ken," Cooper said.

Early in the investigation, police said they would be checking to see whether Purcell was stabbed by a passenger.

Francis MacKenzie, leader of the Nova Scotia Liberals, is calling on the government to pay for a protective shield in each taxi to separate the driver from passengers in the backseat.

But Cooper dismisses that idea, even though he says Purcell is his fourth friend who has been killed driving a cab.

"If somebody gets in my car and tries to do that to me, I'm going to do what it takes to get out of it," Cooper said.

A 17-year-old is scheduled to appear in youth court Wednesday to be charged with second-degree murder in Purcell's death.

The teen was arrested Dec. 26 outside a home in Highfield Park in Dartmouth.

• FROM DEC. 27, 2005: Teen to be formally charged in death of Dartmouth cab driver: police