A Kentucky woman is being held in the El Paso, Texas, County jail on a count of murder after she shot an Uber driver multiple times in the head because she said she thought she was being kidnapped, authorities said.
Phoebe Copas, 48, of Tompkinsville, had booked an Uber ride to a casino in the El Paso Mission area to meet her boyfriend when he got off of work, according to The Washington Post.
Copas said she saw a road sign for the Mexican city of Juárez during the ride, assumed she was being kidnapped and shot Piedra, according to the El Paso Times.
“The investigation does not support that a kidnapping took place or that Piedra was veering from Copas’ destination,” El Paso police said in a statement.
Copas did not call for help when she believed she was being kidnapped nor after the shooting, according to a criminal affidavit obtained by KTSM.
She allegedly took a photo of Piedra and sent it to her boyfriend, KTSM reported.
Piedra had been an Uber driver for about three weeks before he was killed, the Post reported.
Piedra, 52, had been on life support since the shooting. According to the Post, when doctors told his family he would have to remain on a ventilator forever, Piedra’s loved ones told the doctors to end the life support. Piedra died on Wednesday.
“My aunt didn’t want to see him suffer,” Didi Lopez, Piedra’s niece, told the Post. “But, honestly, we don’t think that we made the decision to disconnect him. That decision was made for him the second that those bullets went into his head.”
Piedra’s family started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for hospital and funeral expenses. The family has raised about $80,000 as of Monday afternoon.
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