Some professions are, understandably, difficult, stressful – and dangerous. Fire fighters, for example, should earn all of our respect for the daily dangers that they are exposed to. It should also come as no surprise to you that taxi drivers also have a dangerous job. They’re constantly in small, closed quarters with a wide variety of strangers, and there’s no telling where those circumstances could lead.
Two Boston robbery arrests this past weekend make my point all the more clear.
It was reported today in The Boston Globe that two men named Shawn Hickey and Brian Cunneen were in a Boston cab this past Sunday night, in Charlestown. According to the Globe Hickey allegedly pointed a gun at the taxi driver and demanded his money. At that point, all three men reportedly got out of the cab and had an altercation. During the melee, Hickey allegedly shot the driver twice with a pellet gun. According to Boston Police, he then got into the taxi’s driver’s seat, carjacked the cab, drove down Devens Street, and crashed into two parked cars before he fled on foot. After a lengthy pursuit, police caught the two men. They were charged in Charlestown District Court with Boston carjacking, Boston robbery, and I’m assuming, Boston assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
As a Boston robbery attorney, I can tell you this: Armed robbery is different from “ordinary” robbery, in that the robbery must have been committed by using a dangerous weapon. A “dangerous weapon” could be any number of things; it doesn’t necessarily have to be a gun or a knife – and in this case, it was a pellet gun. If a defendant assaulted or battered the victim, the prosecution may also apply the charge of armed robbery. The sentencing penalties and punishments connected with this crime are very serious – and include the possibility of a life sentence in state prison.