Guns, anti-immigrant bigotry, and fear lead to Uber driver's murder

A Texas Uber driver was shot and killed after his passenger decided—with no evidence whatsoever—that he was attempting to kidnap her to Mexico. Phoebe Copas has been charged with murder after Daniel Piedra Garcia’s family took him off of life support following the June 16 shooting.

Piedra was driving Copas to her destination, the Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso, when according to what she told police, she saw a sign for Juarez, Mexico, and concluded that she was being taken across the border in a kidnapping. Juarez is just miles from El Paso, so it’s natural that there are highway signs for it. According to a court document, Piedra was on “a normal route to drive” to the casino, and the car was not near “a bridge, port of entry or other area with immediate access to travel into Mexico” at the point when Copas shot Piedra multiple times in the head.

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