Uber driver in Florida

[Guest Dwight C]

The Victim Jason Boek

Uber driver in Florida shoots and kills man who chased him in truck, sheriff says

 

A Florida Uber driver shot and killed a man who was chasing his car with a pickup truck and threatened him, authorities said Wednesday.

Jason Boek, 34, was fatally shot at around 2:20 a.m. Tuesday morning after leaving a bar in Dundee, Florida, and chasing Uber driver Robert Westlake, 38, in his pickup truck, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference Wednesday.

 

 

Boek apparently saw his girlfriend and a bartender help another woman into an Uber and mistakenly thought his girlfriend had gotten into the car, Judd said.

Boek became enraged and sent his girlfriend, who was still at the bar, a series of text messages, Judd said.

"The boyfriend is explosive. He's stalking his girlfriend, he's angry with her and he tells her 'I'm going to F up the Uber driver'" Judd said. 

In dash cam video released by the sheriff's office, Boek can be seen cutting off Westlake's car before stopping in the middle of the road and getting out, walking towards the vehicle.

 

"I say something?" Westlake asks.

"You know I got a pistol?" Boek responds, approaching Westlake's car while holding his cell phone like a gun. "You want me to f---ing shoot you?"

A gunshot is then heard and Westlake and the passenger separately exclaim "Oh my God!"

In a 911 call, Westlake can be heard saying Boek "ran me off the road, jumped out of his vehicle, I couldn't get away."

 

Westlake shot Boek once in the chest, police said.

"He came towards me, shouting he's got a pistol reached toward his waistband," Westlake says on a 911 call made public by the sheriff. "I fired one shot from my pistol. He dropped his cell phone I kicked it away, I didn't realize it was a cell phone at first."

The Sheriff Judd Commented and said

“The message is clear. Don’t mess with an Uber driver. Leave the Uber driver alone, because he just may be a certified police officer in waiting,” Judd said. “This is a justifiable homicide all day long. You have the right to protect yourself. This is a classic 'stand your ground case.'”