Passenger recalls frightening moment Uber driver pulls gun on his intoxicated friend during ride home

A ride home following a night out turned terrifying for a man and his friends after their Uber driver pointed a gun at them.

In an interview with 7News, Phillip Yerou said he and two of his friends were taking an Uber back home from Fort Lauderdale Beach on Saturday when things became chaotic as they neared Plantation.

“During the ride, the driver was getting agitated because my friend turned the AC up because he was could and he told him, ‘Don’t touch my stuff,’ and then my friend dropped his wallet, either his wallet or phone, under the seat. He took his seatbelt off to get it and the guy got upset about that,” said Yerou.

Yerou admitted that his friend, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was intoxicated during the ride.

He told 7News their driver stopped along Broward Boulevard to talk to some officers.

“[He] pulled up behind the cop, I guess, to report my friend and the cop came back and basically said, ‘Can you please stop touching his radio and his AC? He’s getting annoyed,'” said Yerou.

Yerou said the driver and his friend kept arguing with each other for the remainder of the ride.

When they arrived outside his home a few minutes later, he tried rushing his friend into the house in an effort to protect him before hearing a frightening sound behind him.

“I’m just telling my boy, ‘Get in the house, get in the house.’ I’m pushing him up the driveway and then I just hear, ‘Click, click,’ and I turn around and he had his gun out, pointed at my friend. I was telling him, I was telling my other buddy, ‘Get him in the house, get him in the house,'” said Yerou.

An emotional Yerou described the desperation he faced while trying to rush his intoxicated friend away from the incensed driver while pleading with the driver to not squeeze the trigger on any of them.

“I was just pleading with this guy as he was coming up my driveway with his gun pointed – he kept trying to point it at my friend and I just kept getting in front of him. I was just asking him, ‘Just please go inside.'” We finally got my friend inside and just turned around and prayed that I wasn’t gonna get shot in the back, got in the house, closed the door, locked it,” said Yerou.

Luckily, nobody was injured in the disastrous ride home.

Yerou then called Plantation Police and reported the incident to Uber.

The ride share company addressed the incident in a statement shared with 7News:

“We’re extremely alarmed by this rider’s report. We removed the driver’s access to the Uber app as soon as this was reported to us and are continuing to investigate.”

Yerou insists despite his intoxicated friend’s antics throughout the ride, there was never a point that any of them threatened the driver.

“At no time could he have even felt threatened because I was screaming – I had his back. I was screaming at my friend just to stop and just to be quiet and just shut up,” said Yerou.

Now he’s just hoping for one outcome for the driver.

“He’s caught and put in jail,” said Yerou.

Yerou added that his friend is remorseful for his behavior that night, which led to the hostile atmosphere.

Plantation Police told 7News the driver has not been identified yet, but they are investigating the incident.