On what began as a typical Tuesday morning, June 4, 2019, Luckinson Oruma, a 60-year-old Nigerian emigre, left his Dorchester home to begin his shift as a taxi driver. A devoted husband and a hardworking father who had successfully put his five children through college with his earnings, Oruma was going about his day in the bustling Back Bay neighborhood of Boston.
His taxi was parked on Huntington Avenue in front of the Colonnade hotel when a fare would turn fatally violent.
A man named Phillip Foy entered Oruma's cab and requested a ride to Mansfield, a town roughly 30 miles away. For reasons of his own, Oruma declined the long-distance fare. Foy grew angry, telling Oruma, "You're going to move this cab or I'm going to move you." When the driver still refused, Foy exited the vehicle, went to the driver's side, and opened the door. He then pulled Oruma out of his seat and began a brutal attack, shooting the cab driver. As Oruma lay wounded on the ground, Foy stood over him and fired several more times.
After the shooting, Foy stole Oruma's taxi and drove a short distance away. He abandoned the vehicle, discarding the gun he had used and even his shoes in an attempt to get rid of evidence. His flight was brief. Eyewitnesses helped police locate him a block away from the scene, where they found him sitting at a table outside a Starbucks and a Shaw's supermarket. Foy was taken into custody after a brief standoff. He later confessed to the killing.
Phillip Foy, a 40-year-old man from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was charged with murder, armed carjacking, and unlawful possession of a firearm. In May 2025, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for the senseless killing of Luckinson Oruma. The judge imposed the mandatory sentence for his crime: life in prison without the possibility of parole. While the verdict brought a measure of accountability, it could not undo the profound loss for Oruma's family, who remembered him as a loving and devoted father doing what he always did—working hard to provide for them.
