Two Lyft drivers were shot and killed on Cleveland’s East Side in separate incidents less than 48 hours apart, Cleveland police confirmed Tuesday afternoon.
On Feb. 8 at 9:49 p.m., 56-year-old Antoine Magel Latham was shot and killed near East 103rd Street and Rosehill Avenue, about a block north of RTA’s Buckeye-Woodhill station on Shaker Boulevard.
Early Tuesday morning, around 1:13 a.m., a 27-year-old man was found shot and slumped over the steering wheel of his vehicle near the 2100 block of East 84th Street in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood. CPD identified him as a Lyft driver.
The two shootings occurred just over a mile apart, raising questions about a possible connection, but Cleveland police say there are no indications as of yet that they’re related.
“That’s the only similarity between the two is that they’re both Lyft drivers,” Sgt. Freddy Diaz told Scene.
“We’re actively investigating both incidents,” Diaz said earlier this week, adding that police currently have “no information that leads us to believe that they’re connected.”
Police announced Wednesday that they had arrested a suspect in the Sunday shooting. A 20-year-old Garfield Heights man was in custody after a search of a home. Charges are pending.
Still, the proximity of the killings, and their apparent link to ride-sharing, has sparked alarm among drivers and frequent users of services like Lyft and Uber.
“Welp there goes my side hustle,” one woman commented on Instagram. “Folks always gotta mess it up.”
“If I was a driver this would be my last day!!!” another wrote. “I’m not trying to be number 3.”
Jennifer, a Lyft driver based in Summit County, told Scene she’s not surprised by the shootings. In the past year, she’s encountered a string of ghost riders—people who hop into her backseat whose names don’t match the name on the app.
Her mind has since run wild: Are these human traffickers? Could I be abducted? “They’re targeting Lyft drivers, getting into people’s cars and taking them wherever,” she said in a call. “And a lot of drivers don’t ask who the actual rider is.”
So, that means she’s laying low for the time being?
“Unfortunately no. I still have bills to pay, I don’t have another option,” she said. “But I will not be accepting rides up to Cleveland.”
A Lyft spokesperson told Scene that identified riders were removed from the platform and that they’re “cooperating fully” with CPD.
“We’re devastated by the loss of two drivers in separate incidents in Cleveland, and our hearts are with their families as we work to reach out and offer support,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Detectives are reviewing surveillance footage, interviewing witnesses, and working to obtain data from Lyft as they search for a suspect or suspects, Diaz said.
Anyone with information related to either shooting is asked to contact CPD’s Homicide Unit at (216) 623-5464.
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