The allegedly drunk couple who have been charged with the beating and killing of 61-year-old Quinton Guerrero in the Bronx over the weekend had been violently fighting themselves beforehand, says Queen Smith, mother of accused killer Tosheba Alford. Smith says Alford called her from the back of the cab when boyfriend Kendall Major began to hit her and accused her of having an incestuous relationship with her brother. Alford then jumped out of the cab to escape a beating from Major, and Guerrero had rushed to her aid. Major then began beating Guerrero as Alford tried to stop him. However, witnesses tell a different story.
Though Alford told police, "He [Major] started punching and kicking the man. I tried to pull Kendall off," witnesses say she was just as involved in the Mott Haven beatdown as her boyfriend. Livery cab driver Angel Ruiz, who called 911 and helped cops find the couple, told NY1, "I was on my way down into Manhattan when all the sudden I just noticed there was a male and a female beating up on a guy. I tried to scream at them to stop, stop, but they continued. That's when the male started running and I got out of my car and felt the guy's pulse and he was already gone." Major and Alford were arraigned yesterday on murder charges, but Major told prosecutors that Guerrero had hit him first and told him "mind your own business."
Meanwhile, cab driver Angel Ruiz reportedly has a long history of helping out cops. He "patrols" the South Bronx in his livery cab at night, and the state Federation of Taxi Drivers awarded him with $500 and a bulletproof vest for his help in catching the killers. He said, "A lot of drivers don't like to get involved, but I don't mind being involved. If more drivers would get involved the streets might be a little be safer."
