Uber passenger shot and killed driver because ‘she feared he was kidnapping her to Mexico’
Phoebe Copas allegedly ‘panicked’ and shot Daniel Piedra Garcia several times in the head after she saw a sign reading ‘Juarez, Mexico’
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A Kentucky woman who allegedly shot and killed her Uber driver because she falsely believed he was kidnapping her to take her to Mexico has been charged with his murder.
Phoebe Copas, 48, hailed an Uber driven by 52-year-old Daniel Piedra Garcia to go to meet her boyfriend at the Speaking Rock Casino in the Mission Valley district of Texas border city El Paso at about 2.20pm on 16 June, according to police.
Ms Copas allegedly saw roadway signs stating “Juarez, Mexico,” and thought she was being taken over the border against her will, according to a criminal complaint obtained by KTSM.
Police say she grabbed a “silver and brown handgun from her purse” and allegedly shot Piedra Garcia multiple times in the head, causing the vehicle to collide with barriers before coming to a stop on US-54 near Loop 375, according to court documents.
Ms Copas is accused of taking a photo of the critically wounded Uber driver and sending it to her boyfriend before calling 911, the criminal complaint states.
Piedra Garcia was rushed to hospital where doctors advised his family that his head injuries were unsurvivable, and he was taken off life support on 19 June, his wife of 29 years Ana Piedra wrote on a GoFundme page.
Ms Copas was initially charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, which was later upgraded to murder.
She is being held in the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $1.5m bond.
Police said in court documents that the location where Piedra Garcia was fatally shot was not close to a bridge or point of entry into Mexico, and there is no evidence to support her claims.
“The investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas’ destination,” El Paso Police said in a statement.
Ms Piedra said that her husband was the family’s sole provider and had started driving an Uber in April after knee surgery.
“He was very happy to finally be able to work and bring home income,” she wrote on a fundraising page last week.
“Today we unfortunately had to disconnect my husband as the doctors did not give any chance that he would survive, after being disconnected he sadly passed.”
In a statement to the El Paso Times, Piedra’s niece Didi Lopez described her uncle as “hardworking” and “really funny”.
“He was never in a bad mood. He was always the one that, if he saw you in a bad mood, he’d come over and try to lift you up,” she told the news site.
Ms Lopez said the family had been told that the suspect had “panicked” after wrongly believing she was being taken to Mexico.
“And so her instinct was to shoot him and she shot him multiple times in the head.”
A fundraiser has raised more than $70,000 for the driver’s family.
An Uber spokesperson told The Independent the rideshare company was “horrified by the rider’s actions” and had been in touch with the driver’s family.
“Violence is not tolerated on the Uber platform and we banned the rider as soon as we were made aware of what occurred. Our Public Safety Team stands at the ready to assist police as needed.”