Thursday April 21, 2016

Melbourne Australia

Paramedics and police officers from the nearby Fitzroy Police Station tried to save the cab driver but he died at the scene.

Detective Inspector Mick Hughes says two witnesses saw a tall, slim young man running through a nearby park after the victim was "brutally assaulted".

He was wearing dark clothing and carrying a satchel.

Det Insp Hughes said there was no suggestion the man was involved "but he was certainly in the location at the time of the murder" and police want to speak to him.

The taxi driver was returning to the flat he shared with his parents when he was killed.

"It may be just a spontaneous attack," Det Insp Hughes said on Thursday.

"They've seen this gentleman get out of his taxi at the end of his shift and may have been working on the assumption he was carrying large amounts of cash.

"The unfortunate part is most taxi drivers nowadays don't."

The man's wallet and mobile phone were found next to his body. It's not known if anything was stolen.

Fellow taxi driver and friend Abdul Botan says the victim "was a very nice man who never had a problem with anybody".

"It's a very sad time for the whole (Somali) community, we are just shocked," he told reporters.

"They way he was killed, I don't know, perhaps the people were on drugs."

Victorian Taxi Association chief executive David Samuel expressed sympathy for the victim's family and friends.

"Our thoughts too are with drivers who service the travelling public, especially late at night, as they come to terms with this news," he said in statement.

The 31-year-old suffered serious upper-body injuries but police won't confirm if he was stabbed until after the post-mortem.

Detectives have examined the taxi and will analyse CCTV footage from the area.

"In a lot of suburbs at 11.30pm there's no-one around but in Fitzroy you'll get a lot of people coming and going from restaurants (and bars)," Det Insp Hughes said.

"So we are hoping someone may have seen something."

Premier Daniel Andrews said taxi drivers often end up in harm's way - and it shouldn't be like that.

"It should be a timely reminder, being a cab driver is not a highly paid profession, and it's a very difficult and challenging profession," Mr Andrews told reporters.

"Our thoughts are with the family but also our thoughts are with all other cabbies that will be out there today and they will be feeling a real sense of pain and loss because of this terrible crime."