SCRANTON -- Police are searching for the killer who shot a taxi driver early Friday morning.
Investigators have identified the taxi cab driver who was killed on the job along the 1600 block of Crown Avenue in South Scranton around 4:30 a.m. Friday.
He is Vincent Darbenzio, 47, of Scranton.
"I saw someone who was shot in the back of his head, obviously. The bottom of his body was still in the vehicle. The top of his body was on the ground," said Misty Losavich.
When Losavich walked out of her front door, this is the scene that eventually unfolded on Crown Avenue with police everywhere. Investigators confirm Vincent Darbenzio, 47, of Scranton, a McCarthy Flowered Cab taxi driver was murdered.
It's the second homicide in the city this year.
"At the very least, that's someone's son who's senselessly no longer with us," said Losavich. "I'm still shaken. I don't even want to talk with the kids about why they can't come outside and why they can't go to school."
"This is just absolutely barbaric, and even for the kids who live in this neighborhood to have to wake up this morning and see a homicide steps from their windows, it's just ridiculous," said Brian McCarthy, President & CEO of McCarthy Flowered Cabs.
McCarthy learned about the death of his employee overnight. He says the cab driver had been on the job for only about five weeks and was a hard worker.
"He made a pickup in west side and he told us where the destination was which was over where we are now. The dispatcher never heard from him again. The dispatcher started to get very nervous and started to send other cabs out looking for him one of our other cab drivers found him here apparently hanging out of the cab with a gunshot wound to his head," McCarthy said.
The violence took place near the Valley View Terrace housing development in Scranton. We were there as parents helped their kids head off to class. Police were also on hand asking questions, with hopes of catching the person who pulled the trigger.
"It was graphic, it was bloody, and it was senseless. And it was sad," said Losavich.