Man Arrested After Allegedly Robbing, Kidnapping North Texas Uber Driver
EAST TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A scary ride for an Uber driver who picked up a rider in Tarrant County.
The driver made the pickup in Bedford on Saturday morning, September 29.
Investigators said the man he picked up, Richard Darby, 28, needed to go to Shreveport, Louisiana because his family had been killed.
The Harrison County Sheriff's Department said when the pair got to Shreveport, the suspect said to the driver that he was to go back to Fort Worth.
The driver, Ekpono Eckponobong, said that's when Darby "placed a knife to his throat and ordered him out of the vehicle, while still in motion as he was heading back."
Eckponobong slowed the vehicle to a speed where he could jump from the vehicle and the suspect then took control of the vehicle and continued westbound on I-20 from approximately the 606 mile marker, prior to FM 450 exit in Hallsville.
DPS Troopers later found the grey Honda Civic abandoned in a ditch in Gregg County on I-20.
While Darby wasn't there, a wallet with the his identification and other evidence was in the vehicle.
Soon after the Troopers and deputies found the vehicle, a shirtless man walked from the wooded area, approximately one quarter of a mile from the location of the vehicle, and ran onto highway flailing his arms and running between the vehicles on the highway.
Deputies ran to the suspect and forcibly placed him in handcuffs.
While he was under arrest and placed in the rear of a squad car, deputies said Darby began kicking the door windows and attempting to flee from the vehicle.
Darby was placed in the Gregg County Jail with a hold for charges in Harrison County of aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
