23 hours ago
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The elderly gunman accused of shooting a cabbie in a rage over a fare seethed “I am gonna kill you” before he pulled the trigger, new court documents revealed Wednesday.
Joseph Meeks, 76, allegedly shot 27-year-old cabbie Alusine Barrie around 4:30 p.m. Monday on Nelson Avenue near West 169th Street in Highbridge, after the irate passenger couldn’t cough up the $40 he owed for a ride from Harlem, according to cops and a union official.
“I am gonna kill you,” the enraged passenger snarled before whipping out a gun and shooting Barrie in the stomach, the court papers revealed.
The heartless shooter then casually went home to his senior living facility on the street where the victim had dropped him off and left his firearm out in the open, cops said.
Barrie told The Post in an exclusive Tuesday interview from his hospital bed that he had no clue his passenger – who appeared to be drunk – had a gun until it was too late.
“He just get out,” said Barrie, who was on a breathing machine. “He closed his door, he turned around and shot me. I tried to put the car in drive, he turned around and shot me.”
Barrie then opened the door and fell out of the car with photos showing him lying down on his back as first responders and his mother cared for him in the middle of the street.
After Barrie was shot, he called his mother who lives nearby and was even able to take photos of the sinister septuagenarian hovering over him.
“He told me that, ‘Mom, Mom, please come, I’m dying. Come, let us talk, please, please.’ I get there quickly,” Barrie’s mother, Haja Idrissa Bahm, said.
“He’s on the ground,” Bahm told The Post. “He tell me, ‘Mom, I’m sorry about everything that I did to you,’ I said ‘No, it will be ok, it will be ok, don’t say that.’”
Cops arrested Meeks about three-and-a-half hours later inside his residence, police said.
Inside Meeks’ unit, the arresting officer found a silver 25 caliber pistol loaded with five live rounds in the magazine, each topped with a metal projectile, “in plain view” on the living room table, the court docs said.
Meeks has a number of prior arrests, including two recent busts where the charges were not bail eligible under the state’s lax criminal justice policies.
He was hit with charges of menacing and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an April 29, 2024 incident in which he allegedly was armed with a gun and threatened to kill a victim, according to Manhattan prosecutors.
Meeks was also slapped with charges of petit larceny and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property stemming from an alleged car break-in on June 19, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.
Barrie has been in the country for about nine years and sends money back to his wife and child in Guinea.
He’s been working for the same company since 2023, according to Fernando Mateo, of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
“This is a very senior citizen, 76, I mean, you’ve lived your life practically, right?” Mateo told reporters of Meeks. “Hopefully, you can live till you’re 80 or 90, but he’s lived most of his life. Why is he trying to take a young man’s life away?”
Meeks – who was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment – was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail or $75,000 bond during his Tuesday evening arraignment.
His next court date is set for Friday.
English (US)