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Now taking a cab doesn’t even keep you safe from gunfire!
Two young men enjoying an evening out in the Big Apple became the latest unintended victims of gunfire, when they were hit by bullets while sitting in a taxi early Saturday.
The pair were with a group of friends at about 3:50 a.m., in the cab heading from Brooklyn to Manhattan, when shots that were intended for others hit them, sources said.
The bullets flew as the cab drove down West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, near Vito’s Slices and Ices pizza shop, which was closed at the time.
Investigators believe three shooters were aiming at a couple wearing a lot of jewelry outside the shop, sources said.
Police recovered three bullet casings.
“It’s getting out of hand,” said Alexander Franklyn of Staten Island, whose 24-year-old son, Nicalus, was hit in the arm. “You don’t seem to be safe anywhere.”
Franklyn said his son was in the back seat of the cab and the bullet shattered a bone in his arm. He was heading into surgery at Bellevue Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
Nicalus, a case worker for a social services agency, and had been with three other friends, all pals from playing rugby, and was going to the Manhattan apartment of one of them when he was shot, his dad said.
“I’m not sure what the future’s going to hold,” Franklyn said of his son’s ability to continue playing.
The other victim, 22-year-old Samy Shelbaya, was grazed in the arm by a bullet, Franklyn said.
An Instagram page for Shelbaya says he’s a medical school student who played rugby at Michigan State University.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission said it was investigating the shooting but would not release information on who owned the cab.
A neighborhood resident who gave her name as Jazzy said she was out with friends and came across the crime scene Saturday.
“The violence is overwhelming. The violence is totally out of control. At one time we can attribute it to drugs. Now it’s unexplainable violence,” she said.
