Uber passenger accused of choking female driver with wire and stealing her car
By Penny Kmitt
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BOSTON (WBZ) — A man accused of choking his female Uber driver with a wire and stealing her car in Boston was ordered held without bail Friday.
Christopher Dawkins, 24, of Dorchester, was arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on several charges, including carjacking, strangulation, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and larceny of a motor vehicle. He hid behind a wall during the hearing as he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Boston Police said the Uber driver picked up Dawkins in Cambridge Thursday evening and, a short time later, just after 6:30 p.m., he attacked her when she stopped the car at the intersection of Massachusetts and Columbus avenues in the South End.
“She said that he pulled a wire around her neck and stole her car. She came out screaming and yelling and called the police,” said witness Stergios Sanxaridis, who was working at nearby New York Pizza at that moment. He told WBZ-TV that the woman ran into the shop begging them to call 911 for her.
The driver was taken to the hospital, but she did not appear to be seriously hurt.
“It seemed like she had a mark on her neck,” Sanxaridis said. “It’s very traumatizing.”
Police said the driver’s phone was still in her car, so they were able to track it to Stanwood Street and Blue Hill Avenue. Officers stopped the car and arrested Dawkins. He is due back in court November 13. The Uber driver was granted a restraining order against Dawkins.
Uber says it has banned Dawkins’s account.
“What this driver experienced is terrifying,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We’ve been in contact with the driver to check on their wellbeing and are thankful to law enforcement for their quick action. We are standing by to assist however we can in their investigation.”
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