Daniel Piedra Garcia had been an Uber driver for 3 weeks when he picked up a rider on June 16 who was headed to the Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso. It was close to the tip of his work day, however Mr. Piedra had picked up the rider anyway, his household stated.

As they handed an indication for Juarez, Mexico, a close-by metropolis over the border, the passenger grew nervous about the place they have been headed, she instructed the authorities. According to court docket paperwork, she stated that she feared she was being kidnapped and brought to Mexico.

That’s when the passenger, Phoebe Capos, 48, grabbed a brown-and-silver revolver from her purse and shot Mr. Piedra, 52, within the head, the authorities stated. The automobile crashed right into a roadway barrier earlier than coming to a cease on U.S. Route 54.

Ms. Copas was initially charged with aggravated assault, however that was upgraded to homicide after Mr. Piedra died at a hospital on June 21.

A decide set bond for Ms. Copas at $1.5 million. Her lawyer, Matthew James Kozik, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

According to an affidavit ready by a detective for the El Paso Police Department, Ms. Copas was visiting from Kentucky and on her technique to meet her boyfriend on the Speaking Rock Casino, the place he labored. The route that Mr. Piedra was driving was “a normal route to drive” to the requested vacation spot, in keeping with the court docket doc, and the situation the place Ms. Copas shot Mr. Piedra was not close to “a bridge, port of entry or other area with immediate access to travel into Mexico.”

Ms. Copas didn’t name the police to report her being in any instant hazard earlier than taking pictures Mr. Piedra, the affidavit stated. After she shot him, it famous, she took an image of Mr. Piedra and texted it to her boyfriend earlier than she known as 911.

When officers arrived on the scene, Ms. Copas was being helped out of the automobile by her boyfriend, in keeping with the court docket doc, and she or he dropped “everything she was holding in her hands on the ground,” together with a brown-and-silver handgun.

In a press release, Uber stated it was “horrified” by Ms. Copas’s actions “that took the life of Mr. Piedra.”

“We have been in touch with his family, and our thoughts are with his loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time,” the corporate stated. “We banned the rider as soon as we were made aware of what occurred and have been in contact with police.”

Mr. Piedra began driving for Uber in latest weeks as a second job to assist make ends meet for his household, together with his spouse, Ana Piedra, and their nephew Luis Barragán, 16, whom they’d raised since he was 3 months previous.

In April, Mr. Piedra underwent knee surgical procedure after a steel rack fell on him whereas he was working as a diesel mechanic, his household stated. But he misplaced pay after the harm, Ms. Piedra stated, and determined to select up some additional work that he may carry out whereas sitting down.

On June 16, Mr. Piedra started the day by making espresso for his spouse. He requested her to make him a burrito as a result of he was going to be out for the day, she stated. Then he left as a result of he had an Uber pickup.

“He left the house happy,” Ms. Piedra stated in an interview on Monday. “He didn’t come back.”

When Mr. Piedra didn’t return that afternoon, Ms. Piedra, stated she known as and texted him a number of occasions to no avail.

Didi Lopez, a cousin of Mr. Piedra’s, stated that members of the family started calling space hospitals. When an area news report a couple of taking pictures of an unidentified Uber driver started to flow into, they known as the police.

Ms. Lopez remembered Mr. Piedra as somebody who was at all times seeking to make others chortle. She final noticed him a couple of month in the past at her sister’s commencement occasion. Some members of the family have been sitting on the sting of the pool as a substitute of swimming, so he determined to splash them, Ms. Lopez stated.

“Even when he was annoying other people,” Ms. Lopez stated, “the whole point was him making you laugh.”

Driver advocacy teams and members of Congress have pressured gig firms to enhance the protection measures meant to guard their drivers.

It is uncommon for an Uber driver to be harmed on the job, nevertheless it does occur. Last 12 months, Uber’s safety report stated {that a} complete of 19 drivers have been killed in 2019 and 2020 — 14 in crashes and 5 in assaults.

But a recent report by Gig Workers Rising, an advocacy group, indicated that these numbers are climbing and estimated that 31 driving or supply app-based employees — additionally together with Lyft and DoorDash — have been killed on the job in 2022.

Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting.