Eulogies laud cabbie killed in fiery Las Vegas Strip crash

Hundreds of family, friends and fellow taxi drivers turned out Wednesday to say goodbye to the cabby killed on the Strip last week in a fiery explosion — a tragedy that has morphed into a national manhunt for a shooting suspect whose gunfire caused all the chaos.

Michael Boldon, a 62-year-old native of Detroit, was remembered by his brothers and sisters as “the go-to guy,” a man they said never harbored ill feelings toward anyone. He loved fast cars, fast horses and Detroit sports teams. He was the kind of guy who would tie the shoes of a fellow cabby who had sprained his wrist and couldn’t do it himself.

They talked about that kind of guy.

Boldon was a man hypersensitive to the feelings of others, so much so that he tried to beat a path to Princess Diana’s funeral in London in 1997 to pay his last respects.

As the story goes, Boldon, a car salesman in Lansing, Mich., at the time, asked boss and close friend Bob Walsh if he would drive with him to Chicago so that he could renew his passport and be able to hop a flight the next day out of Detroit.

“So we beat it to Chicago,” said Walsh, 62, recalling the adventure, one of many. “But on our way back, just outside of Ann Arbor, it looked like we were going to miss it, so I got a hold of the airlines and asked them if they could stop the plane for him.”

“Who are we stopping the plane for?” said the voice on the other end of the line.

“Michael Boldon,” came the response.

“Michael Bolton, the singer?”

There was a slight pause before — “Yes, he sings!”

Then, “He never made the flight.”

The crowd inside the simple church in North Las Vegas burst into laughter in a service that featured a gospel choir and a pastor who reminded mourners dressed in black that the funeral was a celebration of Boldon’s life, not his death. He encouraged them to clap and rejoice that he lived, not that he died.

Two-minute eulogies portrayed Boldon as a loving brother who moved to Las Vegas two years ago to help take care of his ailing mother, Pearl Boldon, 93, who had suffered a stroke.

She attended her son’s funeral in a wheelchair.

It was just a month ago that he had finally moved out and found his own place. He had planned to move in with his fiancee.

Gigi Boldon, his younger sister, who followed Boldon around “like a puppy dog” when she was growing up, said he was her favorite brother — hands down.

And she urged those inside the Holy Trinity AME Church to hug their loved ones now, before it was too late.

She managed to get a hug the day before Boldon was killed in the early morning of Feb. 21 at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road when his taxicab was struck and consumed by flames.

His passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., also was killed.

“I said, ‘Hey, where’s my love?’ And he came back and gave it to me,” she said. “I’m so glad I got my love before he left this Earth.”

Younger brother Tehran Boldon, 50, who is pursuing a writing career in music and listens to hip-hop religiously, said he has known people who have died from violence and gang turf wars. He lives in Long Beach, Calif., and has heard the sad tales from friends.

He never thought he would lose his brother in what is emerging as a similar turf war, only over prostitutes.

“I thought that kind of stuff happened to other people, other families,” Tehran Boldon said. “I never thought it would happen to our family. When I heard, I was, ‘Wow, that corner at Flamingo will always be etched in my head.’u2009”

Jorge Ochoa, accident investigator for Desert Cab Co., expressed his condolences to the family at the funeral. Ochoa said that he knew Boldon only professionally and that the cabby was an outstanding employee.

Ochoa said after the funeral that Boldon started the job that day at 3:15 a.m., 45 minutes before his 4 a.m. shift.

He said his first pickup was at the Rio, according to the GPS system at cab headquarters.

It was when Boldon made a left turn north onto Las Vegas Boulevard that his life ended abruptly along with that of Sutton-Wasmund.

Kenneth Cherry Jr., 27, an aspiring rapper, was fatally shot in the chest while driving his Maserati. He lost control of his northbound car, then struck the cab at 4:20 a.m.

The cab burst into flames in an explosion so terrific that some thought the vehicle may have been fueled by propane.

Ammar Harris, 26, a felon and self-promoting pimp, is wanted in connection with the three deaths.

Harris and Cherry may have argued in the valet parking area at the Aria.

Where Boldon’s cab No. 4144 was headed no one knows. Any sort of trip list was burned in the wreckage, Ochoa said.

“Destination was unknown,” he said.

But those at the funeral knew where Boldon was headed in the afterlife — straight for the pearly gates.

Said the Rev. Leonard Jackson: “He fought the good fight. He kept the faith. We will rejoice. Put your hands together and give Michael some praise.”

Boldon’s son, Michael Aaron Boldon Jr., 37, who is a virtual carbon copy of his father in appearance, said he will always keep his father’s last text, the last great memory he has of him.

“He sent me a Happy Valentine’s Day text. It was the only thing I got on Valentine’s Day,” said the younger Boldon, who plans to keep working as a chauffeur in Las Vegas despite the randomness surrounding his father’s death.

To honor their former co-worker, cabdrivers who are not working plan to hold a candlelight vigil at the crash scene from 7 to 8 p.m. today.

Those who are working plan to drive from Mandalay Bay to the Stratosphere with their hazard lights on.

Contact reporter Tom Ragan at tragan@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.