In wake of murder, Spokane Cab drivers gather to mourn one of their own

Cab drivers from a dozen different companies gathered at Spokane International Airport to remember their friend, Gagandeep Singh, who was murdered in his cab Monday in Bonner County, Idaho.

Singh, 22, was driving for United Cab, which his parents own along with Orange Cab, when he was killed.

“It’s a sad moment,” said Bill Boomer, a fellow cabbie and owner of Bill’s Friendly Rides. “He was a great kid.”

Singh picked up a Puyallup resident Jacob Coleman, 19, at the airport Monday and was asked to drive him to Bonner County. Boomer said it’s not unusual for people to ask to go long distances. He once took someone to Salem, Oregon, he said.

“You don’t think about something like this. Then it just becomes a nightmare,” he said.

What was unusual was that Coleman didn’t provide a specific address or destination, said Orange Cab driver Andrew Caudell. That was a warning sign, he said.

“There were signs that this wasn’t a good run,” Caudell said. “He didn’t have the experience to spot some of those signs.”

Coleman has since been arrested for Singh’s death. He was found sitting in the back of the cab next to the driver’s body Monday evening, and told deputies that he’d been waiting for them for hours, according to police reports.

Coleman is being held in the Bonner County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder. The criminal case is now on hold, however, while Coleman undergoes a mental evaluation to see if he is competent to stand trial.

Cab drivers work alone and there’s a healthy competition among them, but that didn’t stop more than 30 from pulling their cabs into a procession from the airport to the Hennessey Valley Funeral Home on Saturday. Airport police officers escorted the procession for the beginning of their journey.

Singh, who was known as “Dagger” to his friends, was born in Jalandhar, India. His family moved to Seattle in 2003 and then to Spokane in 2007. He graduated from East Valley High School and had plans to finish his last quarter in school studying website design in Seattle in October. He was driving a cab to earn money to pay for school.

Despite his young age, Singh was described as a sharp businessman and a hard worker by people who knew him. He was involved in the fight to have the city regulate Lyft and Uber drivers just like cab drivers, and he was working to design an Uber-like app that would allow customers to summon a cab to their location.

He also handled paperwork for other drivers, said Gerry Matheson, who attended the procession. “He kept things in line pretty well,” Matheson said. “He would have done great things.”

Matheson used to drive a cab years ago, until he was assaulted and robbed on a 3 a.m. run. He eventually came back to the job, but consoled himself with the thought that he would only drive during the day and would only work out of the airport.

“This was day and at the airport,” he said. “There’s no guarantees. It makes you rethink your career choices.”

Several drivers are spooked, said Brian Campbell of Orange Cab. He considers self defense when he drives and has a large canister of mace dangling from his turn signal lever.

“When something like this happens, you have to be more aware,” he said. “You mourn, but you keep going.”

He said he had been heartened by the outpouring of support for the family from the community. “This family is amazing to work for,” he said.

The drivers arrived at the funeral home and joined the packed crowd inside to pay their respects to Singh during a traditional Sikh service. There was a simple sticker on the back window of nearly every cab in the parking lot that read “Dagger. Brother – Son – Friend.”