No charges for Uber driver in fatal shooting

Would-be robber hit by four bullets

An Uber driver will not be charged after he shot and killed a would-be robber while headed to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with a customer in the car, Aventura police announced Monday.

Namique Anderson, 29, of Miramar, was confronted by a man with two handguns after picking up a passenger in Aventura just before 6 a.m. Sunday. He could lose his job for violating Uber’s no-weapons policy by carrying a gun.

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I lose the job,” Anderson said Monday in a phone interview. “I have to protect my life. That’s all I did.”

Anderson said officials of the ride-hailing service contacted him, but he declined to say whether he is still employed. “That’s confidential,” he said.

Anderson also declined to provide more details of the pre-dawn encounter that left Fort Lauderdale resident Kevin DeVincent Johnson, 24, dead on the street.

Johnson was hit by all four bullets Anderson fired, according to Aventura police Sgt. Chris Goranitis.

Aventura police on Monday were questioning a “person of interest” in the incident. They would

not confirm whether that person was Johnson’s passenger, who fled the scene, or someone else.

The shooting happened after Anderson, driving a black 2015 Toyota Carolla, picked up Michel Ferre, 43, of Miami, at a condo in the 3300 block of Northeast 191st Street, police said.

As they headed west on Northeast 192nd Street, the Toyota was cut off by someone driving a newer-model Dodge Caravan, police said.

The Caravan driver, Johnson, “jumped out of the car and approached the Uber driver” with two firearms and “demanded items,” according to Goranitis. Police did not specify what items were demanded.

That’s when Anderson grabbed his own licensed gun and fired four times, Goranitis said.

As this was happening, an unidentified passenger inside the Caravan got into the driver’s seat and took off, according to police. Acting on a tip, police later recovered the Caravan in Broward County. It was an overdue rental car, Goranitis said.

Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene by MiamiDade Fire Rescue. Anderson and Ferre, his passenger, were not hurt. Two weapons were recovered at the scene, Goranitis said.

Johnson is suspected of committing an armed robbery about an hour earlier in Broward County, Goranitiis said. He did not disclose where that robbery took place.

Goranitis said the gunfire erupted from what appeared to be “a random robbery attempt.”

“The attempt was not on an Uber driver,” Goranitis said. “There is no indication they knew it was an Uber.”

A second Uber driver, Wayne Obrian Taylor, 47, happened upon the scene moments after the gunfire. He told police that when he saw a man on the ground, he called 911 thinking that a pedestrian had been hit by a car.

The first officer on the scene got out of his patrol car with his gun drawn and held Anderson, Ferre and Taylor at gunpoint until backup arrived, police said. All three men were placed in restraints while investigators sorted out what happened, according to the incident report.

Uber policy “prohibits riders and drivers from carrying firearms of any kind in a vehicle while using our app,” according to the company’s website.

Drivers with Uber and other on-demand ride services may also be carrying little cash, since the fares are charged to the customers’ established account.

Uber officials were “reviewing the matter,” spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said Monday from Chicago.

Savaria Johnson, Kevin Johnson’s mother, said she was shocked by the news her son had been slain while committing a crime. “It is not in his character to do that,” she said.

She said he had recently stopped attending Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and had come home to live with her in Fort Lauderdale while working for an air conditioning company.

Kevin Johnson was the father of a 5-month-old daughter, his mother said.

The response of the Uber driver to the robbery attempt is just the latest in which an intended crime victim has fought back with lethal consequences.

Last month, Sunrise homeowner Warren Daniel Darlow grabbed a shotgun to shoot and kill a man who broke through his sliding glass door in what may have been a burglary attempt. Two surviving accomplices now face murder charges in the death of Albert Jones, 21.

In January Deerfield Beach convenience store owner Samar Al-Madi shot and killed a would-be robber, identified by deputies as Raymond B. Prescott II, 44, at Snappy's, 155 SW 10th St. Prescott died at the scene.

Johnson