Rabi Ba wants the 30-year-old man charged in the fatal shooting of her uncle to know who he killed and the void his death leaves in the small community of West Africans in the victim’s suburban Dallas city of North Richland Hills.
“Why? Why did you do it? Did you know he was a father? Did you know he was an uncle?” she asked while speaking to local station WFAA.
“My heart is broken, and we are very hurt,” Ba said. Her uncle, 60-year-old Tahirou Diallo, was the glue who kept their community together, and his void will be felt for generations, she said.
“Right now, you see everybody heartbroken because nobody was expecting this,” said Ibrahima Bah, Diallo’s nephew.
Diallo was working for Uber just before midnight on Wednesday, May 7. Multiple videos showed him driving a passenger down the 8000 block of Mickey Street.
According to witnesses, the passenger, identified as Kane Ellington Roden, 30, got out of the passenger side, walked around the back of the car to the driver’s side and fatally shot Diallo at 12:01 a.m. The witness, who spoke to Fox 4, said she saw Roden hold both hands around the gun in a stance and shoot.
Responding officers found Diallo and Roden near an SUV parked in the roadway. Neighbors say Roden lived just feet away from where the shooting took place.
Diallo was pronounced dead at the scene, according to North Richland Hills police, while Roden was highly intoxicated, with a firearm on the seat next to him. He was arrested and booked into Tarrant County jail Thursday, according to online records.
Roden is charged with murder and two unrelated charges of continuous violence against a family and violation of a bond/protective order. His bond was set at $500,000.
There’s no known motive for the shooting. Police said the two men didn’t know each other.
“He was there when I was born. He was there for my naming ceremony and all that stuff…” Jariatou Ngaruko, Diallo’s niece, told CBS News Texas. “He was not someone that was taken lightly in our community. He cared about us a lot, and he was strong in his faith and his religion, and about making sure that you always take care of the people around you.”
Roden, meanwhile, has a lengthy criminal history, with at least 10 other charges from local authorities dating back to 2013. Including two outstanding charges for violence against a family and violation of a bond/protective order.
Diallo leaves behind a wife and 3-year-old son.
“He’s not going to get to see his son grow up,” Ngaruko said. “When you take that one person’s life, even out of that moment of anger, frustration you’re feeling, it affects years to come. His son is not going to notice this until years to come.”
Diallo’s family is calling on Uber and other rideshare companies to take more accountability and implement better protection features for its drivers.
“They do a good job vetting their drivers so if they could do that same vetting for their riders, I think that would be if we could get anything from this,” said Ibrahima Diallo, Diallo’s cousin.
Rabi Ba called for criminal background checks of passengers. “When is it going to stop? How many of Uber drivers have to be killed before Uber take accountability and try to change their policies and change things around,” she said.
In a statement, Uber expressed sadness at “this devastating loss.”
“Our heartfelt condolences go out to the driver’s family during this incredibly difficult time,” the statement continued. “We are in contact with law enforcement and are supporting their investigation in any way we can.”
The family has started a GoFundMe to send Diallo’s body back home to Guinea in West Africa. They’ve raised about $15,000 as of Thursday afternoon.
“He always had a light, and I will always want to carry a light on myself and pour that into other people, how he poured it onto us,” Ba said.
