Lyft Driver Arrested For Kidnaping And Raping Customer
A driver with ridesharing company Lyft has been arrested after picking up a passenger and then taking them back to his house where they were raped.
The accused, identified as Omar Al Naser, aged 32, has been arrested and police have released his image in the belief that there may well have been other victims as well.
It was not clear whether the victim was male or female, as it was not specified in the police release, but Al Naser has been charged with first-degree rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and kidnapping.
They said that the incident for which he was arrested happened when the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a person who had been sexually assaulted on 24th October.
The victim said that they had been at the home of a family member on the previous night (23rd October) and that after requesting a ride home using the Lyft app, they had been picked up by Omar Al Naser.
But instead of taking them to their home, the victim was taken back to his home, where the sexual assault occurred.
Omar Al Naser was arrested at his home in the city of Beaverton at 10:55 AM on Tuesday, 23rd November, and he is currently being held in the Washington County Jail.
Lyft made a statement confirming that it was aware of the incident reading: “Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the behaviour described is appalling. After becoming aware of the incident, we launched an investigation and permanently removed the driver from the Lyft platform. We reached out to the rider to offer our support and worked with law enforcement to assist with their investigation.”
Lyft operates an app offering a wide range of services ranging from hire vehicles, ridesharing and even food delivery. Its headquarters are in San Francisco in California, but it operates in over 600 cities across the United States as well as 12 cities in Canada.
It does not own any of its vehicles but gets a commission from each booking, with prices varying depending on demand. It is the second-largest ridesharing company in the USA after Uber.