By Sasha Gonzales [email protected]
A Bronx man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for his role in the deadly carjackings of two livery cab drivers in the borough in 2014.
Tyrone Felder received life plus 34 years for killing Maodo Kane on August 5, 2014, and Aboubacar Bah on August 12, 2014.
Felder was also sentenced for his role in two other armed robberies in Yonkers the day of Kane’s killing, as well as firearms offenses related to the carjackings and robberies, federal prosecutors said.
Felder was found guilty in September after a trial before U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti, who also sentenced him on Wednesday.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said Felder “cruelly killed two innocent men who were simply trying to earn an honest living,” and would have killed again had the NYPD, Yonkers Police, and FBI not stopped him.
Before sentencing Felder, Briccetti said he was “astonished by the audacity and brutality” of his crimes.
Prosecutors said Felder and three other men – Kareem Martin, Takiem Ewing, and Tommy Smalls – carjacked Kane in order to steal his cab. They forced him to drive to an isolated street near Hunter Avenue in the Bronx, where he was pulled out of his car and shot once in the back of his head, prosecutors said.
Felder’s crew then used the stolen livery cab to commit two gunpoint robberies at businesses in Yonkers, prosecutors said.
A week later, on August 12, the men carjacked Bah in order to use his livery cab in additional robberies. When Bah resisted, Felder shot him in the back of the head inside his taxi on Bryant Avenue in the Bronx, prosecutors said.
Bah’s vehicle careened down the street, crashing into parked cars before coming to a stop. Felder’s crew pulled Bah’s body from the car and drove off in it, intending to commit more robberies, prosecutors said.
The carjackers soon abandoned the cab and their plans because they believed police were onto them, prosecutors said.
Authorities captured them several days later, using surveillance video from dozens of cameras in the Bronx and Yonkers to piece together the crew’s movements, prosecutors said.
Martin, Ewing, and Smalls previously pleaded guilty to their role in the deadly carjackings and are still awaiting sentencing.