MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – After nearly six years on the job, a routine ride for a Lyft driver turned traumatic.
“It left me with trauma,” Abraham Addo said.
Addo picked up two passengers from Fridley, Minnesota, last and was taking them to St. Paul, Minnesota.
“The only thing was when they got into the car, they were sitting low. That was the only thing I noticed,” Addo said.
Addo told WCCO that during the ride he saw flashing lights in his rearview mirror. Thinking they were about to go past them, Addo stopped.
“I did not think they were coming for me,” Addo said.
Instead, Addo’s car was surrounded by officers with their guns drawn, yelling for everyone to get out of the car.
Addo feared he was going to get hurt.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “Guns are pointed at my car; I was in shock.”
A criminal complaint stated that officers stopped Addo’s car during a high-risk traffic stop. What Addo was unaware of was that one of his passengers was a wanted fugitive.
The fugitive had allegedly fled from police by driving down a 6-foot embankment before getting into Addo’s car.
“As I walked away from my car, four to five feet, all of them with guns pointed at the car started shooting,” Addo said.
Officers fired multiple chemical irritant rounds into the car when the passengers would not get out of the car.
“Police ended up destroying my car,” Addo said.
Addo took video showing the damage done to his car, moments after the suspects were apprehended and police were searching the car for their gun.
He said that day destroyed his sense of safety.
“It kept replaying in my head sometimes when I try to sleep. I see it in my eyes,” he said.
And he is struggling to get back to his daily life. To make matters worse, he’s stuck with a $2,500 insurance deductible.
“I’m not happy with Lyft. They’re treating it like an ordinary thing, something that could get me killed,” he said.
Lyft told WCCO that they are working Addo. WCCO also reported the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said Addo needs to file a claim and “he will get paid.”
They said that he was given directions on how to do so.
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