Chief: Cabbie shot during robbery had an 'amazing will to survive'

When Patrick Foster started driving a taxi cab two months ago after being laid off from a truck driving job, his wife was against it.

In her native Honduras, driving a cab is a dangerous job, she said. She feared something bad would happen to him.

"I was worried about it," the Park City woman said. "I told him, 'Don't do that.'"

During a news conference Monday morning, Maria Foster thanked God and the doctors who saved her husband's life after he was shot multiple times during a weekend robbery attempt.

Despite wounds to his face, neck and back, Patrick Foster, 45, fought with the robber and subdued him until police arrived.

Foster was listed in critical but stable condition Monday at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.

The suspected robber, Darryel J. Garner, 38, of the 1000 block of Westmoreland Road in Waukegan, has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. He is held at the Lake County jail on $750,000 bond.

The robbery occurred about 3:10 a.m. Saturday after Garner jumped into the back of Foster's taxi cab in Waukegan, police said.

It seemed like a regular pickup until the robber pulled out a gun on the 3100 block of Lebanon Avenue in Zion, Deputy Police Chief Wayne Brooks said.

Foster resisted, jumped into the back seat and struggled with Garner, police said.

Despite being shot, Foster called police after the attack and lay on top of Garner until police arrived, authorities said.

A handgun was found in the back seat of the cab.

Brooks credited Foster's "amazing will to survive."

Foster was able to call his wife before emergency personnel arrived and told her he'd been shot, she told the media during a news conference at Condell.

She was understandably upset but has had the support of the couple's two teenage children and their church congregation from St. Patrick Catholic Church in Wadsworth since the shooting. Fellow parishioners and church leaders have visited Patrick Foster at the hospital, his wife said.

Patrick Foster is expected to survive, said Dr. William Watson, one of the three surgeons who operated him. Foster has been sedated and is using a ventilator to breathe, Watson said.

Watson described Foster as a "very strong, healthy man."

"I think he's very lucky," Watson told the media.

Even though he lost his truck-driving job last year, Foster and his family have health insurance, Maria Foster said. She forgives the man who shot her husband and expects Patrick will be as forgiving.

Watson resisted laying out a long-term prognosis for Foster. Although Foster's brain wasn't hit by one of the bullets, Watson is concerned about possible brain damage from a lack of oxygen or proper blood flow caused by the shooting.

Maria Foster said her husband is strong, but she's worried about him.

"I want to see him awake," she said.

She insisted her husband's cab-driving days are over.