Woman Assaulted After Ride-Sharing Request, Attacker On The Loose
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A woman looking for a ride home from a popular Dallas nightlife district becomes the victim of sexual assault. Police are now asking for help finding her attacker.
When it's early in the morning, the bars and restaurants along McKinney Avenue are closed. There are taxis and vehicles from car service companies driving up and down the street prepared to give customers a ride home. Police say a driver, who picked up a woman on Saturday, had other intentions.
Dallas police say a woman ordered and then cancelled a ride home using an app on her phone. A man driving a black Chevy Tahoe arrived in the 2900 block of McKinney Avenue around 3 a.m. and picked the woman up.
The victim said she quickly realized the driver wasn't taking her home and demanded to be let out of the vehicle. The man refused, too the woman to a second location, and sexually assaulted her.
Investigators are not giving any indication to what, if anything, the driver said to make the victim think it was safe to get in the vehicle.
There is surveillance video, from a Chevron gas station at Fitzhugh and US 75, showing the suspect dropping the victim off, after the assault occurred. Police say the woman got of the vehicle and immediately called for help.
After looking at the video Dallas resident Lizzy Weix said she didn't recognize the driver, but will use the incident as a reminder to be more careful. "I'm normally on high alert. But I think this is going to change it for a lot of people after hearing about this, because I think people in Uptown don't expect things to happen as they've been happening."
Investigators aren't sure if the man who picked up the woman was an actual driver-for-hire, or someone posing as one.
Dallas police have not said which app-based car service company the woman called. Officials with Uber said they couldn't comment on police investigations regardless of whether or not they may be involved. Executives with Lyft said police haven't contacted them.
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