Kentucky Woman Fatally Shoots Her Uber Driver After Thinking He Was Kidnapping Her: Police

A Kentucky woman allegedly fatally shot her Uber driver after police say she thought he was kidnapping her.

Phoebe Copas, 48, was an Uber passenger on June 16 when she allegedly shot her driver after she mistakenly thought he was attempting to kidnap her and take her to Mexico, according to El Paso Police.

The Uber driver, Daniel Piedra Garcia, 52, was critically injured after the shooting and has since died, leading authorities to upgrade Copas' original charge from aggravated assault to murder, police said. 

Due to his injuries, Garcia had been declared brain dead and was on life support after the shooting, El Paso Times reported. His family finally made the hard decision to take him off it on Wednesday, the news site said. 

“Today we unfortunately had to disconnect my husband as the doctors did not give any chance that he would survive, after being disconnected he sadly passed,” said Ana Piedra, Garcia’s wife, on a GoFundMe page created to help pay for hospital and funeral expenses. 

Police said their investigation did not support Copas' claim that she thought she was being kidnapped or that Garcia had gone off the route to her requested destination. 

Copas is originally from Kentucky but had been visiting Texas to see her boyfriend, CBS News reported. 

After she allegedly shot Copas, she had taken a picture of him and sent it to her boyfriend before calling the police, according to CBS News. 

Copas is being held on a $1.5 million bond at the El Paso County Detention Facility, police said in the release. Her next court date will be for a bond hearing on June 29, according to court records. 

"He was a hardworking man and really funny," Piedra's niece Didi Lopez told El Paso Times. "He was never in a bad mood. He was always the one that if he saw you in a bad mood, he'd come over and try to lift you up and always was making us laugh. Such a funny, caring and hardworking man."

Copas' attorney has not responded to Inside Edition Digital's request for comment.

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