A cab driver was shot and killed by a group of young teenagers during a robbery, police said, and his family is now left to pick up the pieces following his sudden and tragic death.
Kofi Addo came to the U.S. from Ghana in 2006 determined to work hard — and he did, six days a week, driving a school bus by day, a taxi by night. On the night he died, three teenagers reportedly called All Brunswick Taxi and said they needed a ride to the movie theaters. But evidently their motives were much more sinister.
"He was a beautiful soul to be taken away from us so soon. He had so much more on this Earth to do," said his widow, Kecia Banks.
Addo had done so much already, having brought his two sons here from Ghana to give them a better life. He also worked to send money back to his village to help others do the same.
"Him being abroad, people reached out for help. He was helping people go to school, getting anybody who had problems back home. My dad was helping," said his son, Hubert Addo.
He was behind the wheel of his taxi the night of May 11 when he got the call to come to a quiet block of Franklin Township — unaware that three teenagers, just 13 and 14 years old, allegedly lay in wait.
Neighbors captured images of them on doorbell cameras as they had loitered for over an hour. When Kofi pulled up, they allegedly got into his taxi, shot him point blank, took his phone and wallet and ran.
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"All the years I know him, no complaints. Nice man, easy going, trying to make a living," said Basam Abourjeily, who also worked at the taxi company. "He was a nice man, always laughing and joking. It's a shame what happened to him."
What happened that night sent spasms of fear through the typically peaceful neighborhood, which turned into an unimaginable crime scene. The fear still lingers.
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“For somebody to lose his life senselessly like that, it changed all of us. Now we close our doors, we never closed our doors," said neighbor Mem Jamiru, who was born in Ghana, like Addo. "We have a whole village back home that we take care of, people depending on us. When you destroy one person, you destroy a village. Its is pathetic."
That village is now coming together to help send Addo back home to be buried. His son has set up a fundraising page for the father who funded his trip here and sent him to college. He is set to graduate from Kean University in 2024 with a degree in criminal justice.
"One day I was driving him to work and he told me 'I never tell you stuff like this, but I’m proud of you.' That stood out to me a lot, that before he left I heard 'I'm proud of you' before unfortunately he left," said Hubert Addo.
The three teenagers who are charged with killing him are in juvenile detention. His widow, an educator, said that despite her family’s pain, she prays for them.
"Those are someone’s babies and my heart goes out to their families as well. I pray they have strength," said Banks.
