Police narrowed their search for a cab driver’s killer to two suspects Thursday, although they will continue to check all other leads.

Friday, May 12, 2000

Police narrowed their search for a cab driver’s killer to two suspects Thursday, although they will continue to check all other leads.

"We had three suspects, but we ruled one out yesterday," Ironton Police Department detective Capt. Chris Bowman said this morning.

"We feel confident we will come to terms with this from the indications we have and some of the information we have received," Bowman said.

The department has assigned another officer to the case full-time and IPD is working around the clock, Bowman said.

"We were still interviewing people at midnight last night," he said. "And I know we’ve had in excess of 100 calls offering information about the case."

Each day, police will sift through the information, some of which might lead to more interviews of possible suspects, Bowman added.

"We’re doing everything we can, believe me," he said. "No one wants to solve it worse than we do."

Still, Wednesday’s brutal stabbing death of Sureway Cab Co. driver William Keen, 62, has left many residents concerned about their safety, and concerned about recent police department staffing cuts.

"It’s a genuine concern from the people," Mayor Bob Cleary said. "But what I’ve seen with less officers has been that when you want a police report, the response time is slower. "

Last year’s loss of industries and other factors led to a tax revenue falloff this year, which caused the one police officer per shift cutback.

To counter any problems, police have been prioritizing calls, Cleary said.

"Where there is the most emergency, those calls get top priority," he said.

If the one other officer had been out that night, it might not have made a difference under the circumstances, unless the officer drove by at the exact instant, the mayor said.

Whoever killed Keen likely did it so swiftly that it would have been difficult to prevent, he said.

"But the police department is working non-stop on this case and they will continue to work on it until they find who did it."

Keen was found dead about 1:22 a.m. Wednesday in an alley off South Fourth Street between Ashtabula and Clinton streets, only a few feet away from his car.

The driver’s last contact with dispatchers came at 11:11 p.m. IPD officials received another call at 1:22 a.m., with which the cab company reported they had found Keen, who had been stabbed and cut around the throat.

Police suspect a passenger might have killed him after a robbery, but no exact motive for the homicide has been determined.

An autopsy on Keen was scheduled for today in Franklin County. Police do not expect a report until next week.