An Uber driver who decided to give a passenger a lift outside the rideshare app inadvertently was caught in the middle of a standoff after the passenger made threats with a gun. Christian Cazares reports for the NBC4 News on Nov. 29, 2023.
A possible armed rideshare passenger who refused to come out of a car was involved in a three-hour standoff with police Wednesday morning near a train station in Los Angeles' Mount Washington area.
The standoff began at about 7:30 a.m. when officers responded to a rideshare driver's report of a passenger inside their car who was armed with a gun. At least five patrol vehicles and two armored police vehicles were positioned behind the car at the scene in the 4500 bock of Marmion Way, where the passenger remained in the car parked near the Metro A Line Southwest Museum Station.
The driver got out of the car before the standoff and was not injured. No shots were fired.
"He was on drugs and threatening me that I was going to set him up," said driver Gabriel Gonzalez. "I’m not sure what he meant because I’m not an undercover cop. He was paranoid."
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The passenger surrendered at about 10:30 a.m. and was taken into custody. Details about why he remained in the car were not immediately available.
There was no Metro A Line train service between Highland Park and Heritage Square Station due to the standoff. Buses replaced trains on the route.
