As a distraught Phoebe Copas exited the back seat of her Uber car, she dropped everything she was holding. A brown and silver revolver fell to the pavement on a heavily traveled highway near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Copas, visiting from Kentucky, was comforted by her boyfriend. An El Paso police officer rendered first aid to El Pasoan Daniel Piedra Garcia, who was slumped over in the front seat of his grey Nissan Maxima with a gunshot wound to the back, right side of his head that was “bleeding profusely.”
Around 2:20 that afternoon, Copas had hired Piedra, a gig driver, to take her to the Speaking Rock Entertainment Center. Midway through the trip, the Uber ride ended in gunfire and a crash. Garcia was traveling on the highway that leads to the casino, but Copas told police she feared she was being kidnapped to Mexico.
“(Copas) observed traffic signs that showed the words ‘Juárez, Mexico’ which led her to believe (Piedra) was attempting to kidnap her and drive her into Juárez, Mexico,” El Paso police Det. L. Loera Jr. wrote in his complaint affidavit.