‘I could rip their… soul open’: Man accused of killing cabbie told police he felt disrespected

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This article was published 01/12/2022 (1014 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man on trial for the unprovoked killing of a city cab driver told police people who disrespect him “don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Okoth Obeing, 22, made the comments during a lengthy police interview following his arrest in the March 2020 killing of 44-year-old Balvir Toor.

Obeing’s lawyers opposed the admission of the interview as evidence, arguing portions of it were prejudicial against his client, including a disclosure he had been involved in another violent altercation with a cab driver months earlier. King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey, who is presiding over the trial, ruled Wednesday the interview evidence was admissible.

Toor died after he was stabbed repeatedly in his cab as it was pulled over on the 500 block of Burrows Avenue.

Prosecutors allege the fatal attack was sparked by racist attitudes and a “dislike of cab drivers” who showed Obeing “disrespect.”

A transcript of Obeing’s police interview shows him being belligerent and antagonistic with investigators before finally admitting he attacked Toor.

Obeing claimed he gave Toor $60 upfront for the fare and became angry when he wouldn’t give him back $10.

“I had enough,” he said. “That was my last $60. “It was money first, money first. I didn’t even f—-ing give him the address yet.”

Video of the attack recorded by a cab security camera showed a passenger in the back seat engaged in an angry verbal exchange with Toor before suddenly reaching around the driver shield and stabbing him several times in the arm and upper body.

In his police interview, Obeing expressed frustration at not being accepted into a job program, and directed racial slurs at those he believed were “stealing jobs.”

“I’m not getting a job and it hurts,” he said. “I wasn’t taken seriously.”

Obeing told investigators he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder a few years earlier and had not been taking his medication for about a week.

“I just take them when I want to take them,” he said. “If I was on my meds, I would have been better. I need treatment.”

Obeing admitted killing Toor, but when pressed by investigators would not say how, even when shown still images from the cab’s security camera.

Early in the interview, Obeing admitted he “messed up” another cab following a fare dispute with a driver the previous summer.

Obeing said he kicked and banged on the interior and exterior of the vehicle, causing several thousand dollars in damage.

“I felt like I was the Hulk, and then the (police) came and arrested me and took me away,” he said.

“People disrespect me because they look upon me, I’m too weak,” he said. “But deep down there, I could rip their f—-ing soul open. They don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Court records show Obeing later pleaded guilty to mischief to a motor vehicle, was sentenced to one year supervised probation, and ordered to pay $3,600 in restitution.

Court has heard there is no dispute whether Obeing killed Toor; what is at issue is his state of mind at the time of the killing.

The trial resumes Monday.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca