Police in Detroit are on the lookout for two men caught on camera opening fire after a Lyft driver kicked them out of his car.
According to the Detroit Police Department, the incident occurred last Sunday just after 1:00 a.m. on Chene Street in southern Detroit.
The driver, who works for ride-hailing company Lyft, was using TripCam software on his iPad, which among other features records the drive for ride-hailing drivers once they pick up a fare.
In this case, the iPad was mounted on the driver’s front dashboard and was facing rear as the man picked up two passengers.
“When the gentlemen walked up to the window with the phone that had the app on it, to change the destination, that’s when red flags started going up,” the driver told WDIV News in Detroit.
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The driver’s video recorded what happened next as he became increasingly suspicious of the two men in the back seat. The two requested more destinations be added to their trip that were not entered in the Lyft app; moments later, there is some confusion over which man is the “Brandon” who ordered the ride in the first place.
“All right guys, [get] out. I’m cancelling,” the driver tells the two. “You guys are doing illegal s*** here and I don’t want anything to do with it.”
It’s tough to make out from the video, but a crumpling sound is heard as the two men depart the vehicle; the driver says one of the men reached forward to steal some cash off the centre console.
The driver jumped out of the car to pursue the two men. As he rounded to the rear of his vehicle, he says he noticed one of the men had drawn a pistol.
“I guess it was just my natural instinct to just, you know, somebody grabbed something out of your car, you get out and run after them,” the driver told WDIV. “Yeah, I know it was a stupid move.”
His TripCam camera captured the sound of multiple shots being fired as the driver scrambled back into the front seat and took off. A short while later, he called 911 to report the shooting.
No one was injured.
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