PITTSBURGH, PA – A female rideshare driver was briefly held at gunpoint during an attempted robbery after she picked up a passenger for a ride from West Penn Hospital.
According to police, just after 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday, a Pittsburgh Police Department officer was conducting a directed patrol of the 1200 block of Chartiers Avenue when a woman ran toward his vehicle saying she had just been threatened at gunpoint by three males who attempted to rob her of her purse.
The officer immediately called for backup.
“The victim later told police she was a ride-share driver who had picked up a male passenger at West Penn Hospital for a ride to an address in the 1200 block of Chartiers Avenue. Upon completing the trip, the passenger asked her make a turn onto Nittany Street where she parked the vehicle,” the PPD said. “At that point she says the suspect took her keys out of the ignition and grabbed her purse. The victim says she tussled with him on the ground outside of the vehicle, as she tried to get her purse and keys back, when two more unknown males appeared from a yard on Chartiers.”
She says one of the new actors pointed a gun at her and took the purse from her, but dropped it and ran–along with the other two males- when he saw the police vehicle pull up.
Police caught up with two of the three males on foot minutes later in the rear of a property in the 1200 block of Chartiers and placed them both in custody.
Police did not identify the suspects in this case.