An Uber driver has said she feels lucky to be alive after two teenagers tried to carjack her before opening fire on her when she picked them up for a ride.
The mom-of-six, who wished to remain anonymous as the assailants are still at large, told KSDK about the terrifying ordeal in St Louis, Missouri, saying that “my headrest saved my life.”
At around midday on October 4, the woman said she got a multi-stop ride request on the app.
First, she picked up one young man – who looked around 16 – and then the second.
She said the passengers then led her down a “dead-end type of road” near a metal factory in the Riverview neighborhood, where she began feeling uncomfortable and so refused to go any further.
When she stopped, she said the teens pulled out a gun and pointed it at her.
“It freaked me out,” she said, saying she then tried to open the car door and reach under her seat for her own gun.
But one of the men took her keys out of the car’s ignition, KSDK reported.
At that moment, the two assailants jumped out of the car, went round the back, and opened fire, she said.
The woman said that her car was riddled with bullets with four bullet holes in her windshield and two in the head rest.
“They shot a lot of bullets straight at me. My head rest saved my life, catching two bullets in it. My seat has more. The windshield in front of me had four holes through it. I didn’t even realize at the time, I guess my body was just... my mind was shutting off. I stayed as still as I could,” she told the outlet. “I just stayed right there. I didn’t move and then after they, I guess, unloaded the whole clip, they took off down the road.”
The mom-of-six luckily escaped the attack with just a “grazed arm,” according to a GoFundMe account.
Riverview Police Department has not yet identified any suspects in the case, the outlet reported.
The mom-of-six said that the distressing images of that day are racing around her mind “1000 times in a day.” “I just can’t stop thinking about it,” she said.
As well as the trauma, she also claimed that Uber has refused to cover any medical costs or provide her with a rental car.
An Uber spokesperson told The Independent: “What this driver went through is a nightmare. We have spoken with her to offer support and will continue to assist law enforcement with their investigation however we can.”
The mom-of-six said she is just thankful she survived to see her daughter get married two weeks after the attack.
She added: “It is just scary, a job’s not worth losing your life, it’s not.”
