Cabbie Packs Heat, Facing Murder Charges

July 16, 2001 -- When an argument turned into fisticuffs between an Austin, Texas cab driver and two of his passengers last October, the driver pulled out a .45 caliber handgun and mortally shot both men.

Forty-four states allow people to carry concealed weapons, and the killings in Texas add to the already heated debate over whether carrying a concealed gun increases public safety or whether it leads to unnecessary deaths.

Last Fare

At approximately 1 a.m., after a night out celebrating Lance Hughes' upcoming wedding, Hughes and his co-worker Kevin Macdonald, both employees at an Austin Internet company, decided to share a cab home. Wayne Lambert, 54, picked them up.

According to Lambert, Hughes was drunk and insulted him. The two men exchanged verbal jabs and then, according to Lambert, Hughes swung at him. Lambert said he then stopped the car and demanded the passengers get out of the cab.

At this point, Lambert said, Macdonald got out of the car and said to his friend, "Help me kick this taxi driver's ass." The driver said the two passengers then attacked him. Lambert claims he reacted by pulling out his gun, which he kept tucked under his clothes.

"I drew, and I thought when they saw the gun, they'd back off," said Lambert. But he said they continued fighting him so he blindly started shooting. "I just pulled the trigger as fast as I could," he said.

Seconds later, Hughes lay on the ground with three bullet wounds to the back. Macdonald was shot in the chest at point-blank range.

Lambert said he then staggered back to his cab and called his dispatcher to report what had happened.

'I Don't Want to Be a Victim'

Prosecutors brought charges of capital murder against him, but Lambert who died in jail while awaiting trial, said it was a justifiable killing — an example of the benefit of carrying a concealed weapon. "I thought they might kill me," he told ABCNEWS.

Not surprisingly, he was a strong advocate of the right to carry concealed guns. "Do I have the right to defend my life?" he asked rhetorically. "I just don't want to be a victim out there."

But there is another, very different version of what happened that night. In Austin's Brackenridge Hospital, Macdonald gave police his account of the night.

He said the driver took offense at something the two men said and stopped the car and challenged Hughes to a fight. Macdonald said he got out of the car to break up the fight, and then Lambert started shooting. "The cab driver pulled out a gun and shot us both," he told police.

Spotty Record

In the days following the shooting, other cab drivers gave police sworn statements saying Lambert was "very short-tempered" and "always angry at just about everything." One cab driver claimed Lambert once said, "I would shoot someone over a dollar."

Police also discovered that Lambert had previously been arrested, charged with choking and threatening to kill another cab driver. When Lambert agreed to pay financial restitution, the charges were dismissed.

Despite his previous arrest, it was perfectly legal for him to carry his handgun.

The victim's father, Mike Hughes insists that such licenses are dangerous. "I think this guy, because he had a license … he convinced himself that he could kill these people and get away with it," he says.

Guns and Texas

Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp is a strong supporter of the right to carry a concealed weapon. "If a man committed murder, then he will be convicted for it," she says. She argues, however, that crime is a lot less likely when there is a possibility that members of the community are armed.

"There should be a deterrent effect because you look at us and go, 'I don't know if she is carrying so maybe I won't pick on her,'" she says.

Hupp is hardly the only Texas politician with such views. In 1994, George W. Bush campaigned for governor saying he would sign a new concealed weapons bill. In his first year as governor, he signed the bill into law, promising it would increase public safety.

However, a recent investigation by The Los Angeles Times revealed that some 150 Texans with prior convictions for crimes including rape, armed robbery, spousal abuse, and manslaughter still received concealed weapons permits. Another 3,000 permit holders were arrested after getting licensed — Lambert was one of them.

Regardless of whether Lambert was the perpetrator or the victim on that October night, it raises the question of whether allowing someone to carry a concealed gun gives them the ability to make a very bad decision. Hupp argues it is worth taking the chance.

"That is a teeny, tiny price to pay for the ability of the other 99.9 percent of us to be able to protect our families," she says.