Rideshare driver shot after accepting cash fare in Atlanta

ATLANTA - A rideshare driver is grateful an armed passenger didn’t take his life on December 17.

Dwayne Johnson said he stared down the barrel of a gun in his own car and reached for it to protect himself, but the driver pulled the trigger several times. Then in another desperate attempt to save his life, he slumped over, pretending to be even more seriously hurt.

Witnesses remember a chaotic scene as a man stumbled out of his car in the parking lot of Walmart along M. L. King Blvd.

"He had a hole in his arm, he was on the floor, blood was everywhere," a witness said.

But the victim, who lived to "look back and laugh," said driving himself to the store with an open wound was the easy part.

"I actually should’ve drove to hospital [considering] the $1800 ambulance bill," Dwayne Johnson said.

The real chaos, he explained, was 10 minutes around the corner on Joseph E. Boone Blvd.

"I was waiting for the passengers to come out," he said.

Johnson has been driving Lyft for years. He's only accepted legitimate passengers through the app, but when his original riders canceled that day, he decided to help a stranger who asked in-person for a "cash" ride. 

"I felt he was a genuine young fellow, but I wasn’t even going to charge him because it was around Christmas," he said.

After that stranger led him to a dead-end, he pulled out a gun and demanded cash. The driver didn't have any.

"He asked me to cash app him," Johnson said

Johnson obliged and sent him $100.

"I’m noticing that he’s getting agitated. I had my Apple Watch on, ‘give me your watch, I know you have a gun in here,’" he recalled.

When Johnson reached for the gun, the gunman fired several shots.

The shooter ran off. And Johnson drove himself to the Walmart where he called the police.

Investigators haven't released the gunman’s description, but Tuesday night, as Johnson rolled up his sleeve to reveal the healing holes in his arm, he said he feels great and is convinced this happened for a reason.

"I just hope something good comes out of that," he said.

Not even a year ago, FOX 5 reported on another rideshare incident, in which a driver was kidnapped at gunpoint, in the same neighborhood Johnson was shot.

Atlanta police encourage drivers to stay vigilant.

If anyone knows anything that could lead police to the person who shot Johnson, give them a call.

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