Teen Uber passenger says she was accidentally shot by driver
A 15-year-old Uber passenger was mistakenly shot by her driver as he moved his gun, authorities said.
Bailey Braun was struck in the ankle during an Uber ride with her boyfriend Sunday afternoon in Hollywood, Fla., NBC Miami reported.
Police said the driver, 27-year-old Adrian Harper, had stopped to pick up two other passengers.
When he moved the firearm from the seat to the holster, it accidentally went off inside the vehicle and stuck Braun, officials said.
Braun said Harper then jumped out of the car to her aid and apologized to her.
“He ran around the side and was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’” Braun said. “And when I asked him what happened, he said that it went off.”
Unless he had one of those shitty Taurus 24/7s, a gun doesn’t just “go off.”
Why was the gun sitting on the passenger seat when he went to pick up passengers?
My guess is that he was in a hurry, fumbled the re-holstering, and squeezed the trigger.
The driver was arrested on suspicion of culpable negligence inflicting harm.
Uber said drivers and passengers are prohibited from carrying firearms. The company confirmed that Harper has been suspended. It was not immediately clear what kind of gun the driver had.
So he lost his job, may face some jail time, and will pay what is technically known as “an ass-load” of money in legal fees, and potentially a lawsuit, because he was careless.
Also, this is one of the reasons I won’t drive with Uber. I don’t like the idea of letting strangers into my car without being able to conceal carry.
Let us go over the rules of gun safety one more time:
1. ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FIREARM POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION.
2. TREAT ALL FIREARMS AS IF THEY WERE LOADED.
3. KEEP YOUR TRIGGER FINGER OUTSIDE THE GUARD AND OFF OF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO FIRE.
4. BE CERTAIN OF YOUR TARGET, YOUR LINE OF FIRE, AND WHAT LIES BEYOND YOUR TARGET.
5. ALWAYS WEAR APPROPRIATE EYE AND EAR PROTECTION WHEN SHOOTING AND MAINTAINING YOUR FIREARM.
This driver here violated Rule No. 3 and now he will be paying for it and some poor girl will have to have her ankle rebuilt.
I drove for Uber for a short while to make some extra money. When I did, I carried. Yes, I knew what the “policy” was, Didn’t care. My car, my rules. The gun was never removed from my holster until I got home and was done for the night.
I also got complimented a lot on how I would hop out of my car to open the door for passengers. Wasn’t because I was being kind and considerate, I wanted eyes on them before they got into my car. I had heard of riders getting into the car, then smashing the driver in the head with something, stealing what they could and getting gone.
In the short time I drove for them (mostly Friday and Saturday nights, to pick up the drunks at bar close because I knew there would be a surge fee), the biggest issue I ever had was the drunks being hungry and wanting to go through the Taco Bell drive through and eat in my car.
Maybe not one of the Laws, but definitely a good guideline:
Keep the gun in the holster until you actually need it.
Putting a loaded gun into a holster is one of the most dangerous things we do with guns. It’s a motion really conducive to making the bang switch move in the wrong direction, on a body part that is also conducive to having things that can get into a trigger guard (bits of shirt, jacket lanyards, floppy cheap holster folds, and so on).
Better to just leave it in, and don’t play with it in public.
On another note: They claim passengers are prohibited from having weapons…
I ride Uber often when I travel, and I am armed wherever I legally CAN be.