A viral video shows an Uber driver dodge bullets after a passenger entered the car in Chicago, Illinois.
The incident happened earlier this month, on March 17, when the driver, identified as John Williams, picked up his rider from the West Garfield Park neighborhood, an area with a high crime rate.
In the dashcam footage obtained by Storyful, the woman is seen entering the back seat of his vehicle before she urges him to take off.
“Go, go, go! He [is going to] shoot up the car,” the woman said while ducking in her seat.
“Shoot up the car?” Williams asked.
“Yeah, go!” the woman responded.
Seconds later, the shots could be heard in the background as Williams pressed the gas.
“What the f**k was that?” he said.
“He just shot the car,” the woman said calmly.
When Williams asked for an explanation, the woman didn’t answer but said she would call 911 before the video cut off.
Williams told Storyful that the woman diligently called the police, and they waited in a nearby area. However, as the situation intensified, and due to Williams feeling “startled and alarmed,” he decided to pull off. According to FOX 32, there’s a 1 in 20 chance of becoming a victim of violent crime in West Garfield Park.
“Feeling increasingly uneasy and fearing for our safety, I made the difficult decision to inform [the passenger] that I couldn’t wait for the police any longer,” he said, adding, “Ensuring her safety became my top priority.”
According to Storyful, after Williams completed the ride, he continued to pick up other passengers. Police told the outlet that they have no report of the shooting.
Recently, Uber drivers in Chicago demanded more safety measures to be put in place after one of their colleagues was killed while on the job, WLS-TV reported.
The man, identified as Mohammed Al Hejoj, was allegedly fatally shot by a passenger in December in the North Austin neighborhood.
“For the company, they have blood on their hands. They’ve known this is an issue. We’ve been calling attention to it for years,” Chicago Giga Alliance’s Lori Simmons told the outlet at the time.
Similar demonstrations continued last month as drivers from rideshare apps Uber and Lyft, as well as DoorDash drivers, decided to go on strike. They held protests outside airports in multiple cities in the U.S., including the Windy City, according to local news.
