ATLANTA — An Uber driver who had an angry passenger open fire outside his car says he knew there might be trouble as soon as he picked him up.
"I was prepared," the driver, Thomas John Okoua said standing next to crime scene tape on Friday. "When I saw him, he was agitated. So I knew that he was a troublemaker."
He just didn't know how right he would be.
Police said that the shooting appears to have happened when Okoua and the suspect got into a dispute near the Ansley Mall shopping center. The driver told 11Alive that the suspect apparently wanted him to stop at a nearby gas station and then asked him to stop at a gas station if it was on his route.
"When we got to his house, we didn't see any gas station so he wanted me to pass his house and drive all the way up here which is about a mile and a half away from where he was supposed to get off," Okoua said. "So when we got here, he said, 'Just drop me off, motherf*****, drop me motherf*****," so I said OK."
But when the suspect wanted Okoua to pick him up again and take him home, he refused saying he couldn't do it without the suspect entering the app and requesting a new ride.
At some point, the man exited the vehicle and fired shots into the air before running from the scene.
"So he got out, he said, 'Move before I shoot you'," Okoua said.
Okoua said he was armed but chose not to retaliate.
"Myself, I'm a gun owner, but I don't want to get in a gunfight with someone who doesn't have a life," he said. "I mean, I do have a life. And I just retired from my job, so I can't jeopardize my life so I sped away."
Okoua said an officer nearby heard the gunshot and came to him. He explained what happened just moments before.
The shopping center is located at the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and Monroe Drive in the Morningside community of Atlanta. The gas station where they stopped - and the scene - were on the corner of that shopping center's parking lot.
Police searched the area but were unable to locate the man.
He is described as a black male approximately 5’9”- 5’11’ wearing black skinny jeans and an army fatigue jacket. His locks pulled into a ponytail and he was carrying a black backpack.
Police said the suspect is not the person who initially requested the UBER.
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