Elderly Uber driver carjacked in DC speaks about his ordeal
ARLINGTON, Va. (DC News Now) — Alem Zewoldai said he feels “blessed” to be alive.
The 74-year-old Uber driver was carjacked at gunpoint last Saturday night in Southeast D.C., police said, by people who broke three of his ribs and cut a gash in the back of his head that needed six stitches.
Zewoldai, who spoke exclusively about his harrowing experience to DC News Now, said that a good Samaritan who is ironically from his native Eritrea, Africa, found him wounded and ended up taking him home to Virginia and then to the hospital.
Zewoldai praised the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for their response and the Eritrean woman who recognized him as he wandered the street dazed and confused because he was hit hard in the back of the head.
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As for his attackers, he said he isn’t angry but disappointed in their behavior.
“I’m sorry about them,” Zewoldai said. “They’re young. They should be in school. They are, as I said, they are [the ages] of my kids. And what are they going to do? They can take the car. They can drive the car as long as they want but [that] doesn’t give them anything good.”
Police said the incident happened around 5:18 p.m. on Jan. 20 near the corners of Horner Place SE and Wilmington Place SE.
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Zewoldai said he was driving his new black Toyota Highlander and four men got into his vehicle – three in the back and one in the front. He said they were loud and reeked of marijuana. Not long into the drive, the person in the passenger seat wielded a gun and demanded his car.
He said the attackers pulled him from his vehicle, hit him on the head and in the ribs and then tried to run over him with the car. Zewoldai said he doesn’t remember much after that because he was dazed by the blow to his head.
But the woman from his country recognized the white religious blanket scarf he was wearing and stopped to ask if he was OK, Zewoldai said, adding “then later she asked me what is the number of my house? I told her I don’t know this really.”
Zewoldai said he was able to help navigate her to his Arlington home and then paramedics were called by his wife and he was taken to the hospital where he remained for two days.
“She saved my life,” he said.
Zewoldai said he has been driving Ubers for 10 years and only stopped during the pandemic. But the carjacking will not deter him from driving again.
He questioned how young people could have access to guns.
“I am concerned that if you are…living in this kind of environment, it’s a decaying environment,” he said. “But it makes me think twice. I came from a place where it is very, very safe. We are not safe.”
MPD said they arrested three teenage boys in connection to the carjacking and assault. A 15-year-old from Southeast D.C. was arrested and charged with armed carjacking and unauthorized use of a vehicle, while a 14-year-old from Hyattsville, Md. and a 15-year-old from Greenbelt, Md. were arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle.
Police were also able to find Zewoldai’s car and belongings.
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