'Who was looking out for my life?' Cabbie slams police for Aaron Driver takedown
Taxi driver Terry Duffield wants answers from police after he was injured in the takedown of ISIS sympathizer Aaron Driver last Wednesday.
I heard an officer say, 'he's still twitching.' That's when I heard four or five more shots. And then there was silence.- Taxi driver Terry Duffield
Driver set off an explosive in the back seat of Duffield's car as police converged on him.
Duffield says he sat for five minutes in Aaron driver's driveway waiting for him to come out of the house. He says police should have warned him or stepped in before Driver entered his cab.
Here is part of Duffield's interview with As It Happens guest host Laura Lynch.
Laura Lynch: [Aaron Driver] is in the back seat, he's given you the money. What happens next?
TD: Just as I start reversing I hear somebody yell 'stop.' I looked in the rear-view mirror and that's when I see a bunch of cops coming up to my car with guns drawn. I kinda leaned over ... I said to him 'I think they're here to talk to you...' and the bomb went off. I was just turtled on the seat. I was scared shitless. I kept yelling 'I'm just the driver, I'm just the driver!' I sat up and I could hear 'hands out, hands out' ... so I put my hands out of the car, got out of the car very slowly, so not to get shot. As soon as I was out of the car I literally did a face plant into the gravel, spread eagle. At that point I heard an officer say, 'he's still twitching.' That's when I heard four or five more shots. And then there was silence.
LL: What is going through your mind?
TD: Not much at this point. I was just really afraid that the cops were going to shoot me. My whole thing was I don't want to be shot right now.
LL: Two days later police interviewed you. I guess you had some questions for them?
TD: I had one question for them. Who was looking out for my life? Who was protecting my life? Why did you put my life in jeopardy?
LL: So let's just be clear here, when you got that call, when you went into that driveway and waited for Aaron Driver, no one told you that there was a bunch of police waiting to descend on this car?
TD: Absolutely no time from beginning to end was I ever informed by any officer what was going on. At no time was my cab stopped. While I was in that driveway for approximately five minutes waiting for him, no cop came up tried tapping on the window saying, you know, get your butt out of that car. The cops did absolutely nothing other than put my life in jeopardy.
LL: You haven't been able to get in a taxi since. What are you going to do moving forward?
TD: That I do not know yet. I am just taking it one day at a time. Every time I think about it I start to shake because of the anxiety. I keep thinking, what happens the next time someone were to get into my cab with a bag. Now, I don't know. I probably will never get back in a cab.
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On Thursday, As It Happens contacted the RCMP for a statement. We were told that the matter is still under investigation and that no more information would be released at this time.
Listen to our interview to hear Terry Duffield's full story of picking up Aaron Driver, and the police confrontation that followed.