Taxi driver too afraid to answer door

A taxi driver shot on the job in Wellington says he cannot return to work and hesitates before answering his front door, fearful his attacker might return to finish the job.

Alem Tesema was shot in the shoulder after picking up a man and woman on Courtenay Place about 9pm on Saturday in what police previously described as an apparent fare dispute, but Tesema says was a premeditated robbery.

Police have not yet formally interviewed Tesema, and the main suspect in the shooting, 26-year-old Dylan Nuku, is still at large.

‘‘Am I safe in this place? No, I am not,’’ Tesema said at his home yesterday.

‘‘I do not have a choice to go somewhere [else]. If I had somewhere to go, I would. You don’t know about these people, how they are going to be. They have so many relatives in the area, I don’t know if I’m safe.

‘‘These guys, they tried to kill me. Are they going to send somebody from their own family? I don’t know. This is serious for me now.’’

Tesema has lived in Wellington for 20 years, having originally come from Ethiopia.

Police say a small, low-calibre pistol was used in the shooting. Tesema said it was unbelievable to think a man had been walking around central Wellington with a loaded gun.

He described how the man he picked up – alleged to be Nuku – and a woman who was with him refused to give a drop-off address. Instead, they directed him to a quiet spot on Stone St in the suburb of Miramar.

‘‘Both of them, they had sunglasses at night, at 9pm in the dark.’’

The two passengers got out of the car quickly. At first, Tesema thought the silver gun the man was holding was a toy.

‘‘He said, ‘get off [sic] the car’. He looked like he was joking but it was not a joke, it was real. Next second he shot me, gunfire, boom,’’ Tesema said.

‘‘The woman was aggressive also. I never saw a woman like this. Usually – I have been taking a woman and a man in the taxi all the time – usually the man is drinking and the woman can make him more civilised.’’

Tesema said he drove to a nearby service station for help.

‘‘I don’t know how I am thinking at that time. My brain was really working, but at the same time I had been shot and the blood was really coming and flooding very high.’’

It was only luck, Tesema said, that the bullet hit his shoulder. If he hadn’t moved the shooter would have killed him.

Surgery was required remove the bullet from his arm.

‘‘This is not a joke. This is not a Hollywood movie. He had a gun.’’

He was adamant there was no fare dispute before the shooting. ‘‘We did not talk about the money at all.’’

Police called yesterday for Nuku to hand himself in. to