Feb. 24--Rahman Damani started his overnight shift Sunday in Flash Cab 5365. Driving past a favorite free spot on Devon Avenue east of Ridge Avenue, he noticed his friend and fellow cabbie wasn't there.
Kamil Shamji often parked there between fares, sometimes catching a little sleep. Mostly, though, he worked. Up to 20 hours at a time if he could get a cab, especially with his daughter at a university and Uber driving down cab fares, according to friends.
The next day, just before 8 a.m., police found the 58-year-old Shamji dead in his cab behind the Sulzer Regional Library in Lincoln Square, about 3 miles away. It's a neighborhood with low violent crime, although a 25-year-old man was killed and two others were wounded during a shoot-out last month in nearby North Center, not far from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home.
Shamji died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, which ruled the death a homicide.
No suspects were reported in custody, but police Tuesday night released an alert, asking for the public's help finding a suspect who was believed to have killed Shamji in an armed robbery. Police said they were looking for a robber they described only as a black man, ages 18 to 25, who was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt at the time of the robbery.
Police were saying little about the investigation Tuesday, but sources said investigators were looking into whether Shamji was shot by a fare he picked up near Pratt Boulevard and Clark Street in Rogers Park. Police would not say whether anything was taken from Shamji or the cab, and it was not known whether the shooting was caught on camera.
Shamji, a native of Pakistan, had been driving a cab in Chicago for 35 years, and raised two children.
His friends said the shooting illustrates once again the risks cabbies take.
"These are the things that we talk about," said Ahmed Kassam, who shares a cab with Damani.
When he heard Shamji had been killed, Kassam said he called Damani to tell him.
"There's bad news," Kassam said he told Damani.
The two drove to the library parking lot in the 4400 block of North Leavitt Street, believing their friend's body would still be there. With police cars and officers still on the scene, they could see their friend Shamji slumped over the wheel and the front of the cab wedged against the curb.
"(Damani) was trembling," Kassam said, recounting the moment Tuesday as Damani gazed at the ground, silent. "(Damani) drives the same post and works the same zone he works. And he said it could have been possible that, 'If I was there earlier, it would be me rather than him.' And why (does) it happen to him?"
Damani told police how he had called Shamji to check on him, and how his friend hadn't answered. Damani explained that he and other cabbies who work the overnight shift stay in contact with each other. They were part of a close-knit community bound by work and their shared experiences as immigrants.
As they stood near the scene, a neighbor approached Damani and Kassam and asked if they were relatives. They said no. They were friends. The woman expressed her sorrow at his death, and said she never heard a shot, Kassam recalled.
"She said...today, I'll go to a church and pray for his soul, that his soul may rest in peace," Kassam said.
Damani said he knew Shamji for more than 35 years, having met in Germany after both moved from Pakistan. When Damani moved to Chicago in 1990, he looked up his old friend Shamji, and they reunited.
Shamji would work a period of long shifts and then slow down a little bit -- with a 12-hour shift, according to Damani and Kassam.
"He was talking about his daughter that was studying at Bradley," Kassam said. "He was working hard to send money to her, was working hard for her."
Kassam said cabbies are floating theories about the slaying, and worry whether it will be solved.
A little over a year ago, Chinedu Madu, a Nigerian immigrant, was killed during an armed robbery in Lawndale, and a 23-year-old man was charged in his death. The next month, another cabbie was found shot to death in west suburban Maywood after he went to pick up a regular customer following a call, according to police.
Kassam said his own daughter, who is studying in Chicago, cried and trembled after learning about the death of her father's friend.
"She said, 'Dad, I know the type of work you're doing. Just give it up, you know, 'cause I'm scared of. . .' and she was crying," Kassam said. "'I hope it's not you 'cause this is the same line of work you are doing.'"
Anyone with information on the killing is asked to call detectives at 312-744-8200, or send anonymous tips through TIPSOFT.COM
The Chicago Tribune's Liam Ford and Jeremy Gorner contributed.
pnickeas@tribpub.com
