What led to the shooting

On 4 January 2022, a 38-year-old Lyft driver was carjacked by two suspects that planned to steal the vehicle the driver was in. The Lyft driver drove a 2011 Honda Acord, another person occupied the passenger seat. The suspects, Alex Fernandez Pena and Juan Rodriguez ages 32 and 20 respectively. They set a trap in which they purposefully hit the vehicle of their target. The action of bumping someone’s car forces the driver to stop, get out of the vehicle and address the situation. The goal of this plot was to distract the target while the other passenger committing the crime would sneak into the target’s car and drive off with it. The Lyft driver became the target of this rouse, a passenger in the car sitting in the passenger seat. The passenger was told to get out of the vehicle, Juan and threatened to hit the passenger with the stolen car if they did not. Fernandez Pena immediately pulled out and pointed a twelve-gauge shotgun atthe driver. He then proceeded to get intothe driver’s car, Juan got intothe passenger side and drove away. Thedriver is a licensed gun carrier and reached for his weapon, and opened fire on Fernandez and Juan. Fernandez was hit with bullet in his chest outside ofthe vehicle when he tried to escapethe scene. Juan was shot onthe right side of his rib cage and found in thistolen vehicle

What happened to the carjackers

Both suspects were critically injured and taken to the Penn Presbyterian after police arrived at the scene. The passenger, who was in a Lyft car, was unharmed and provided a statement to the police on what had transpired. The driver of the Uber car, who was in a Lyft car, was critically injured and taken to the Penn Presbyterian after police offered arrived at the scene.

The suspects were charged with the following after they were treated for their injuries:

  • Assault with a deadly weapon

A felony charge for car hijacking. Displaying a firearm during a crime of violence. ..

If found guilty of these crimes in a court of law, the suspects could face a 25-year life sentence with a minimum sentence of seven years.

Was the Lyft driver fired

After the Lyft driver and passenger were injured in a car accident, it was safe to assume that both were traumatized. The driver handled the situation well, considering the high stakes involved. The results of the incident could have ended in death but it didn’t.

The driver of the Lyft car and passenger were both within their legal rights to have a gun and fire it in that situation. The assailants threatened the driver with a gun, robbed him of his car, and threatened him with a gun.

Yes, Lyft allows an open carry firearm policy for its drivers.

Lyft has not released a statement about the matter and because citizens in Philadelphia have open-carry rights, Lyft cannot legally have a policy against drivers being able to carry guns. Philadelphia is being a dangerous city in the United States of America. Drivers are often at risk making trips at night or during the early mornings as such many become victims of carjackings or other crimes.

Have there been other incidents like this?

On the 26th of February 2022, Abdul Khan was a Lyft driver who was shot and killed in a carjacking that happened on the scene. Unfortunately, the assailant was arrested. He was a 17-year-old kid. The sequence of events is as follows; Abdul was on the job at 5.30 pm. His family contacted the police after failing to reach him for hours, nobody in his nuclear family or Lyft driver app could get a hold of him. He was found in the middle of the road shot dead with gunshot wounds. His car was missing when the police arrived at the scene. Two days after the murder occurred, two teenage boys were spotted with their vehicle.

Conclusion 

Lyft driver shot two attackers who hijacked his car. He did this in self-defense after one of them pointed their gun at him and stole his car. The driver and passenger involved were unharmed, and the assailants were arrested after receiving treatment.