A retired law enforcement officer now working as a cab driver shot a Levittown man who allegedly assaulted him outside his cab Wednesday night, Nassau County police said.
Detectives said the 66-year-old driver ended up in an empty lot on 17th Street in Jericho just before 10 p.m. when the customer, 41-year-old Donald Canham, gave the driver the wrong directions to a residence in Hicksville.
Canham asked the driver how much money he had and then told him to pull over into the empty lot, police said.
The retired law enforcement officer feared he was going to be robbed and pulled the cab to the curb, police said, identified himself and ordered Canham out of the cab.
When the driver exited the car to call 911, Canham allegedly charged him and struck him with an unknown object, police said. The driver then pulled out his licensed handgun and ordered Canham not to move, but was charged at again, “forcing the victim to fire his weapon striking the defendant in the leg,” police said in a news release.
Canham and the unidentified cab driver were taken to a local hospital for treatment—the driver with a head injury, and Canham with a non-life-threatening injury from the gunshot wound, police said.
Canham was charged with assault and will be arraigned when he’s healthy enough to do so, police said.
