Cab Driver Loses Eye as Rider Attacks With Knife, Chemicals

A Yellow Cab Co. driver lost an eye and was robbed of his money and taxi when a woman passenger splashed a caustic material in his face and escaped in the cab Tuesday morning in the 4000 block of Swift Avenue, police said.

Oleos Santiago, 35, was in stable condition Tuesday at Mercy Hospital, a hospital spokesman said. A police spokesman said Santiago lost his right eye from the splashing and was cut under his right eye.

Santiago was responding to a call about 3:25 a.m. to pick up a fare at in the 4000 block of Swift Avenue in East San Diego, said police spokesman Dave Cohen. When Santiago arrived, he found no such address and began looking around the neighborhood, Cohen said.

A woman approached Santiago’s cab, got in the back seat, and told him she was the one who called and that she wanted to go to 26th and Imperial, Cohen said. When Santiago told her there was a $10 deposit, the woman agreed, but instead of paying, she splashed or sprayed an unknown caustic chemical in his face and tried to strangle him, Cohen said.

Santiago was able to yell “Code Blue” into the cab’s radio before breaking away from the woman and escaping, Cohen said. As Santiago ran to a nearby Alberto’s taco shop at Swift and University, the woman got into the front seat of the cab and drove off, he said.

Police found the abandoned cab shortly before 6 a.m. in an alley in the 4100 block of 43rd Street, Cohen said. The woman had taken $200 in cash that was left in the car when Santiago ran away, he said.

Police are still looking for the woman, who is described as black, very thin, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 30 to 35 years old, Cohen said. At the time of the attack she was wearing a red and black winter jacket, blue jeans and a blue pullover cap, he said.