Photo courtesy of KRDO.
Summary: An Uber driver allegedly shot a passenger in Denver Friday morning.
An Uber driver allegedly murdered a passenger on a highway in Denver, Colorado. According to TIME, the two parties had a conflict which led to the shooting.
Denver police department spokesman Sonny Jackson said that the driver and passenger had been fighting before the driver shot the passenger. The incident occurred at about 3 am on Friday on Interstate 25.
Jackson said that both parties were taken to hospitals, and the victim was pronounced dead and the driver was treated and released. According to Fox Denver, the highway was closed for about five hours after the shooting.
“This is very preliminary, but it appears there was an Uber driver and his passenger got into a conflict inside his vehicle, shots were exchanged, shots were fired and the passenger it appears was shot,” Jackson said. “We’re going to need to talk with that driver.”
Police said that the Uber driver’s car, a silver sedan, had veered off the road and hit an on-ramp near the University Boulevard Bridge. It is unclear if the passenger had also fired rounds.
“We do know this person was an Uber driver. We’re going to determine if he was actually on a ride when this happened. We’re going to determine what the relationship was between what appears to be a passenger and a driver prior to this particular ride,” Jackson told KUSA-TV. “That’s the one thing I would stress anyone that was on the highway at this time ….if they saw a conflict going on inside this vehicle please let us know.”
Denver police have contacted Uber, who released a statement to USA Today.
“We are all deeply troubled by the events in Denver today. Our thoughts are with the families of those involved, and we will continue working closely with police,” Uber said.
Uber has a no-gun policy for drivers and said that it conducts criminal background checks on those in its network. Despite these policies, however, there have been several reported instances in Colorado of unsafe Uber rides.
“This is just the latest troublesome incident for the ride-hailing company in Denver and the state of Colorado. In April, Denver law professor Nancy Leong fired off a series of tweets describing how her Uber driver told her he was going to take her to a hotel instead of the Denver International Airport. At a stop light, she said she screamed and pounded on the vehicle windows until nearby construction workers noticed and the driver then unlocked the doors and Leong got out,” USA Today said. “Last year, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission fined Uber $8.9 million after regulators found 57 Uber drivers over the previous year and a half were on the job despite having felony convictions, major moving violations or were driving with a suspended, revoked or canceled driver’s license.”
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