Cabdriver stabbed to death

The taxi driver's supervisor and friends said they believe Heros Previlon died fighting over a $7 fare.

Previlon, 32, a Haitian immigrant studying to become a pastor, picked up a man at the Reservoir MBTA stop early yesterday in Brighton and took him to Washington Street, according to John McNeeley, his supervisor at Bay State Taxi Inc. in Brookline.

Boston police refused to talk about the events surrounding the slaying, but McNeeley, who spoke with detectives, and the victim's co-workers said they believe the passenger refused to pay the fare, forcing the cabdriver of seven years to lock the car doors. The passenger may have kicked out the windows to escape, the driver's friends believe. Previlon got out of the cab to confront the passenger, who then stabbed him in the chest, fellow cabdrivers and his boss speculated.

''All this for what was probably a $7 job," McNeeley said. ''I can't stress this enough: No fare is worth risking your life."

The passenger is at large, and his identity is unknown, Boston police said.

Previlon, 32, was born in Haiti and moved to the Boston area 15 years ago. He was choir leader at Grace Tabernacles Church of God Inc. in Chelsea. He taught Sunday school and was studying to become a pastor at a seminary school in New Hampshire, said his sister, Murana.

''My brother is my heart," she said. ''He is my best brother. He always prayed with me. . . . He is my life."

Previlon said she does not believe that her brother could have died over a $7 fare, the estimated cost of a ride from the T stop to Washington Street.

''He always gave money to anyone who needed it," she said. ''He never would have fought over money."

Previlon picked up a passenger who called Bay State at about 1 a.m. asking for a ride from the Cleveland Circle area to Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, according to McNeeley, the radio room manager at Bay State.

He said investigators and the cab company are trying to piece together what happened after Previlon left to pick up his fare. He never called the dispatcher after the pickup, McNeeley said.

Five hours later, the car was found with the rear passenger window smashed, McNeeley said. There was blood on the shattered glass in the parking lot and in the front seat, according to witnesses who saw the cab.

His co-workers said they believe Previlon managed to get back inside the car after the attack and tried to get away. He crashed the vehicle into a pole in a parking lot at St. Elizabeth's, McNeeley said. A nurse found him at about 6 a.m. inside the cab, covered in blood.

Boston police would say only that they found a cabdriver inside the car suffering from apparent trauma. The slaying is the 46th in Boston this year; there were 45 at this time last year. The last time a cabdriver was slain in Boston was in a 1993 shooting.

If anyone saw Previlon that night, they most probably thought he was just taking a break, said McNeeley. ''People think nothing of a cab parked. Nobody had a chance to save him."

Previlon's family gathered yesterday at the house of one of his three brothers, also cabdrivers. Surrounded by friends from church and work, the young man's siblings screamed and cried outside the three-decker home in Cambridge. ''Why?" wailed Murana Previlon.

Previlon, who was working on his third album of gospel calypso, dreamed of quitting his job and becoming a full-time pastor, his family said.

''He had a vision to become something, to help people" said Lucien Duperier, the pastor at Tabernacle.

The youngest of five children, Previlon had been active in the church since he was a boy.

''He always wanted to bring people to God," said Wilbert Previlon, one of the victim's brothers.

He had no girlfriend and no children, just his devotion to his faith, Murana Previlon said.

''All he did was focus on God," she said. ''All the children at the church loved him."

Taxi and livery drivers are 60 times more likely than any other worker to be murdered on the job, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The organization has pushed for safety measures, such as partitions between drivers and passengers. Previlon's Bay State cab did not have a partition, because it was licensed in Brookline, which does not require the shields. Partitions are mandatory in cabs licensed by the city of Boston.

Drivers have asked repeatedly for town officials to require the shields, said Jean Kelly Roland of Waltham, an employee at the cab company.

''People are dying now. What more do they need?" Roland asked. ''We're all thinking of changing our careers now."

Maria Cramer and Megan Tench of the Globe staff contributed to this report.