Man gets 48-year sentence in fatal shooting of cab driver

A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to 48 years in prison for the September 2015 fatal shooting of a Denver taxi cab driver during a botched robbery.

Prosecutors say the sentence was the maximum allowed for Dasean Perry under a plea agreement. In September, he admitted to second-degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery in the slaying of 49year-old Darren Bloomquist.

Bloomquist was driving a cab early on Sept. 5, 2015, and was dispatched to the 20000 block of E. Mitchell Place. The Denver District Attorney’s Office says when he arrived, Bloomquist was shot and killed during an attempted robbery.

The sentence was handed down Thursday in Denver District Court, prosecutors say. Perry had just turned 19 when the shooting happened.

Bloomquist was a taxi driver out of necessity, but the psychologist by training worked for four years to make ends meet ferrying Denver passengers with the same empathy he showed in other aspects of his life, his loved ones and colleagues said.

Bloomquist joined the Air Force after college and served stateside during Desert Storm as an assistant to the commanding officer, his obituary said.

“Darren was a kind and loving husband, son, brother, uncle and friend,” the death notice said. “He had a love for animals, especially cats. He enjoyed fantasy role-playing games, drawing pictures, mazes and writing. He had a number of novels in progress.”

Bloomquist’s widow, Melva, said her husband was special and fun-loving.

“My heart is broken,” she said at a memorial. “I don’t know what to do. Darren was my sole caregiver and my sole provider.”

The slaying put the city’s safety measures for cab drivers in the spotlight.

Security cameras have been shown to reduce the number of murders of cab drivers in cities where they are in common use.

The cab that Bloomquist was driving, like many of those in Denver, didn’t have one.

Bloomquist was at least the eighth cab driver killed on the job in Denver since 1972, according to a list compiled by Taxi Library.

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