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(WFMZ) – With a gun at his head and fear in his heart, a cab driver found his “lifesaver” to be a Berks County sheriff’s deputy who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Deputy Terry Ely was behind a Reading Metro cab that was stopped for the traffic light at North 10th and Buttonwood streets shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday. “It was a red light,” Ely told 69 News. “It then cycled through to green. The car did not move, and it went back to red again. At that point, I just wanted to make sure everything was OK in the car.” At the same time, surveillance cameras inside the cab were rolling as a passenger in the backseat pulled out a gun, aimed it at the driver and demanded his money.
“Give me all your money, man… I need it all right now if you don’t want to die,” the masked man, later identified by police as Victor Martinez-
Herrer, screamed to the driver. “All hell broke loose,” the driver, Ralph Valletta, told 69 News on Tuesday. “The gun came out at my head. He was screaming at me. He had his hoodie pulled down and I couldn’t see anything but his eyes.”
The panicked driver complied with the armed passenger’s demands, handing over $11 from one of his pockets.
Moments later, the video shows Ely, the sheriff’s deputy, activating his car’s flashing lights and walking toward the stopped cab to investigate.
“I stood in the back to try and hear the conversation ahead of time so knew what I was getting myself into,” Ely said. “At that point, I heard the driver say, ‘Just please don’t shoot me.’
The deputy, drawing his firearm, ordered Martinez-Herrer out of the vehicle and down on the ground as he called for backup from city police officers.
