TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The mother of the victim killed by a taxi driver says she thinks the driver is lying to authorities about the shooting.
Police said the 27-year-old Global Cab driver picked up the passenger, identified as 19-year-old Marize Simone Brooks, on Deleon Avenue around 2 a.m. Wednesday and was asked to drive to an isolated area in the 1100 block of Mockingbird Court, police said. An argument, possibly over the fare, ensued, and the driver said he was shot before he returned fire, killing the man, according to police.
He was airlifted to Holmes Regional Medical Center. Police said he was in stable condition Wednesday afternoon.
But his mother, Felicia Brooks, says her son never took taxis and said if her son wanted to go to the house where he was shot and killed he would have just walked because it's not very far from their house.
"I hope and wish and pray that you will tell the truth, not half truth tell us why you were out here this time of night," Brooks said. "Because every thing that I'm being told is not adding up to me and I don't get it."
Brooks said her son left home at about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday to spend the night with his girlfriend. Police said the taxi driver told them the 19-year-old called and wanted to be picked up sometime after 1 a.m. on De Leon Avenue.
"The pizza places won't even come out here, so what is he doing out here?"
There were no witnesses to the shooting.
Police said Brooks has been on probation since February after a grant theft conviction. The investigation is ongoing, according to police.