A Lyft driver who calls a passenger Attacked him in Texas He has filed a case against the lift and the hospital where he picked up the passenger after he choked him with his own seatbelt while he was taking him to his destination.
Driver Kehinde Ayola said staff at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston requested a ride in February of this year and helped the passenger into the vehicle.
“He pulled my seatbelt and wrapped it around my neck, suffocating me. He was trying to kill me,” Iola said Fox 26.
The passenger, Ramiro Vela, was Charged with aggravated assault In connection with the attack.
Iola explained the impact of the violent attack on him since the incident, noting that he now fears another attack.
“As we sit here, if someone tries to pass me, I always get very scared, you know. I see it all the time. Every day,” he said, and he replayed it over and over again.
He said he did not pick up passengers after the incident because of his fear. He was a rideshare driver for seven years.
“Because I’m always scared. Even if my grandson is sitting in the car behind me, I’m scared,” Iola said.
Ayola said that when he arrived at the hospital to pick up Vela, he saw the man standing with three hospital staff because he was confused and acting strange.
“When I picked up that passenger in February, I talked to the staff, the Memorial Hermann staff,” he recalled. “I said ‘Hey what’s going on? Is this guy okay?’ They told me, they said, ‘Oh yeah, it’s okay.’ I also asked the security guard, and he said, ‘Yes, it’s fine.’
Shortly after Vela got into his car, he began talking to himself before beating his chest and, at one point, sliding into the back seat behind Iola. According to Iola, the passenger then grabbed Iola’s seatbelt and wrapped it around the driver’s neck.
Iola tried to put his fingers between his neck and the seatbelt, and was unable to close his seatbelt. Vela then used her arm to put Iola in a chokehold.
The driver pulled his car over to the side of the road, and Vela kicked the back window until the frame came off before kicking the dent in the back of the vehicle and opening the trunk, Ayola said.
Investigators said Vela then ran to a home and started yelling and trying to break in. The homeowner called 911 and Vela was arrested.
Ayola “is an innocent, hard-working man who was just trying to complete an elevator ride that was ordered, supervised and called by Memorial Hermann Hospital, and he was attacked,” Ayola’s attorney, Osayuki Ogbedet, told Fox 26.
“He expressed his concern to the Memorial Hermann staff, and they assured him that Ramiro Vela would be fine,” Ogbeide added.
Ogbeide said Ayoola suffered “very special damages. Not just loss of wages, not only Medical billsBut his whole life turned upside down.
Vela’s next court date is set for September 25.
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