A Houston-area Lyft driver is lucky to be alive after being strangled by a rider with his seatbelt while driving on the freeway, before the rider damaged his car and attempted to break in to a nearby home.
It happened Wednesday around 3:05 p.m. in the 35000 block of the Northwest Freeway near Hockley.
“I need to try to save my life at this point. That is what first came to my mind,” Lyft driver Kehinde Ayoola told only KPRC 2.
According to court documents, 47-year-old Ramiro Vella has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Ayoola said Vella got in his car at Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital.
“When I saw the way he was behaving, I asked the security guy ... ‘Is this guy ok?’” Ayoola said.
Security and two other men brought Vella to his car from the emergency room area, he said, and immediately he noticed something was off.
“One minute before I go to the freeway, he started yelling, beating his chest,” Vella said.
The aggressive rider then escalated minutes into the ride on the busy Northwest Freeway when he grabbed Ayoola’s seatbelt from behind.
“Wrap it with my neck. Immediately I was choked. I just tried to put my hand to just pull the seatbelt a little bit (away from my neck) and I released it,” Ayoola said.
Ayoola moved through several lanes of traffic before parking his car on the side of the road, when he said Vella kicked his car, leaving the back window popped out and a dent in the back of the car.
Vella then ran into a nearby neighborhood, where surveillance camera captured him jiggling the handle and trying to push the door open at Jesse Jasso’s house.
“I’m bilingual but he was kind of unintelligible in either language,” Jasso said.
Jasso was armed and held Vella until deputy constables arrived about 15 minutes later, which he said felt like an eternity. Vella was then taken into custody.
“We don’t know his motive,” Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said, encouraging everyone to do what they can to protect themselves or property.
He called the rideshare driver attack “violent” and praised Ayoola’s quick thinking.
“We’re very fortunate there wasn’t other vehicles around him when it occurred because it could have been a catastrophe,” Herman said.
Ayoola is now at home with his wife with injuries to his neck, shoulders, and leg.
“Anybody flying at high rates of speed could have hit him ... He wouldn’t even be here today,” his wife Edith Veltz-Ayoola said. “I thank God that he’s here.”
Ayoola, who has driven with Uber and Lyft since 2019, said it’s a source of income that supports his family, but this situation my change that.
“I’m not sure I can continue driving because anytime I remember the issue, I mean, you know, it always scares me,” he said.
Vella’s bond was set at $50,000.
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to KPRC 2 that the federal agency lodged a detainer on Vella. That means if he gets released from jail on bond, he’ll be taken into ICE custody, because it’s believed he’s in the U.S. illegally.
On Friday, Lyft confirmed the incident happened to one of their drivers. They released the following statement:
“Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the behavior described is unacceptable and has no place in our community. We have contacted the driver to offer our support, permanently removed the rider account from the Lyft platform, and stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.”