Father Tracks Down and Shoots At Uber Driver After Driver Allegedly Sexually Assaulted Her

Father Tracks Down and Shoots At Uber Driver After Driver Allegedly Sexually Assaulted Her


Authorities in Washington state are investigating a shooting incident that occurred Saturday night in Thurston County, where a father reportedly caught a rideshare driver allegedly sexually assaulting his highly intoxicated daughter. The driver, who has not been named because charges have not yet been filed, is being held in jail on suspicion of rape and kidnapping.

Early Saturday morning, Thurston County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of gunshots near Gardner Ct. SE and Nisqually Park Drive SE in an unincorporated area of the county. A 911 caller reported hearing someone say “I don’t want to kill you,” followed by two gunshots and vehicles leaving the area, KOMO reports.

A responding deputy stopped a vehicle on 6th Ave Southeast and found the driver, later identified as the rideshare driver, bleeding heavily from his head and hands. In the car, the deputy noticed a cell phone, a black t-shirt, and a single shoe that did not belong to the driver. The driver initially attempted to leave the scene but eventually agreed to go with paramedics to the hospital.

The investigation revealed that the victim had been out drinking with friends at a bar. One of her friends ordered her an Uber to go home. However, when the friends returned home, they realized she was not there, despite the drive being only 12 minutes long. They alerted the victim’s father, who used a location tracking app to find her near the Nisqually River on 6th Ave SE.

The father, along with other family members, found the victim unclothed in the backseat of the Uber vehicle, with the driver “jumping over the center console” and attempting to hold his pants up. During the confrontation, the father fired two gunshots, which did not hit anyone, but the family did assault the driver to get him away from the victim.

Sheriff’s officials reported that the victim was so intoxicated she was incapable of consent and did not remember what happened between being picked up at the bar and being found. The Uber app used by the friend showed the victim being picked up at 12:17 a.m. and dropped off at a different address at 12:31 a.m. However, the Life 360 app on the victim’s phone indicated she was in a moving vehicle for 23 minutes and had passed the initial drop-off point before being found by her family.

“Marking [victim] as dropped off in the Uber app, yet continuing to transport her to another location, demonstrated [suspect’s] intent to conceal [victim’s] location where he believed no one could find her so that he could sexually assault her,” Thurston County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Rudy Breteler wrote in a declaration of probable cause.

The rideshare driver was transported to a local hospital, treated for injuries, and subsequently arrested on charges of second-degree rape and kidnapping. Thurston County Superior Court Judge John Skinder set the suspect’s bail at $100,000 and imposed conditions that include no contact with the victim, no possession of weapons, no work on rideshare platforms, and a GPS monitor if bail is posted.


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