Uber driver who shot 19-year-old passenger won’t be charged, State Attorney’s Office says

An Uber driver who shot his 19-year-old passenger after an argument over a drop-off location in Hollywood will not be charged in his death, the Broward State Attorney’s Office has decided.

Miles McGlashan died in January, two-and-a-half months after Christopher Bernadel shot him outside of Bernadel’s car in the area of Emerald Oaks Drive and North Park Road. A State Attorney’s Office memorandum released Wednesday said the presented evidence in the case is insufficient to overcome the government’s burden in a ‘Stand Your Ground’ case.

Attorney David Kubiliun, who is representing McGlashan’s mother, April McGlashan, said they are asking the State Attorney’s Office to present the case to the grand jury. She is also suing Bernadel, alleging in the complaint that he was known to be violent.

Bernadel, 51, was driving McGlashan to North Park Road on the evening of Nov. 9 and as they approached the gates to the Emerald Oaks community, McGlashan said the address was wrong and wanted to change it, Bernadel told a Hollywood Police detective. Bernadel told McGlashan not to change the drop-off address in the Uber app and declined a tip McGlashan offered to be taken to the second address, according to the memo.

McGlashan then cussed at Bernadel, canceled the trip on his phone and got out of the car, slamming the door, Bernadel said, according to the memo. Bernadel got out of his car after McGlashan, who said he was upset over the disagreement, and told McGlashan he “didn’t have to be disrespectful,” according to the memo.

“He just came in and started hitting me,” Bernadel told a police detective, according to the memo. Officers took photos of swelling on the left side of Bernadel’s head.

The Uber driver said he fired one bullet as McGlashan was hitting him and drove about a block away where he called 911. There were no witnesses to the altercation and no surveillance videos in the area, the memo said, aside from one man who lived in the area and called 911 after hearing a “bang” and opening his door to see McGlashan limping between houses, saying he had been shot.

Initially, there were discrepancies in reports about where McGlashan had been shot, the memo shows. EMTs and an emergency room doctor at Memorial Regional Hospital wrote in their records that McGlashan had been shot in the right side of his chest, with the bullet exiting through his back. The doctor who operated on McGlashan determined the opposite — that McGlashan was shot in the back and the bullet exited through his chest.

The bullet pierced McGlashan’s kidney, liver, diaphragm and lung, the memo said. He had been on life support until he was removed on Jan. 19.

Ultimately, the doctors who performed his autopsy ruled his cause of death as complications from a gunshot wound in the chest and that the manner of death was homicide, the memo said.

State Attorney Harold Pryor and several assistant state attorneys met with April McGlashan, her attorney and McGlashan’s grandfather earlier this month to explain they would not file charges.

“There’s just extreme disappointment, and you can imagine the emotions that have gone along with this case,” Kubiliun said. “But again, we’re hopeful that the State Attorney’s Office will change their mind and at least let a grand jury make a determination.”

Bernadel did not return a voicemail seeking comment Wednesday afternoon.

Pryor in a prepared statement said he wants to support legislation that would require ride-share services to equip cars with video surveillance that can’t be disabled while drivers have a passenger “in order to prevent another tragedy like this one.”

“Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law requires prosecutors to assess the facts and evidence we receive. While hearts and minds often struggle, prosecutors are tasked with and required by law to ensure there is not only probable cause to support a criminal charge but that there is also sufficient evidence to prove that charge beyond every reasonable doubt,” Pryor’s statement said. “Based upon the evidence we received in this matter, our office cannot pursue charges.”

Lawsuit claims driver was ‘loose cannon’

April McGlashan filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bernadel and Uber and Uber-owned company Rasier LLC in March.

Before Bernadel signed up with Uber, he had five traffic citations between 2011 and 2014 for failing to obey a traffic sign, driving with an obscured tag and a license suspended without knowledge and for red-light violations, the complaint said.

In 2021, he was sued for negligence in a 2019 car crash. He received a citation in 2020 for speeding, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, Bernadel’s ex-girlfriend called officers two-and-a-half weeks before the ride with McGlashan to report an alleged domestic battery. The woman had bumps on her head, and officers made Bernadel leave the home.

A woman filed for a protective injunction against Bernadel last December, writing in her petition that Bernadel had previously stalked, threatened, harassed, cyberstalked or physically abused her and destroyed her personal property. It is not known whether she is the ex-girlfriend mentioned in the wrongful death lawsuit.

Bernadel filed a counter-request for an injunction against the woman, claiming he had been threatened, harassed, stalked or physically abused and his belongings destroyed. He noted the police department investigation of the shooting in the document.

“I was involved in a shooting that is still under investigation where I was assaulted and I defended myself and I didn’t get arrested,” he wrote.

His petition was denied. The woman failed to appear at a hearing and her petition was dismissed, court records show.

“Bernadel had a known reputation for violence amongst his acquaintances who call him a ‘loose cannon with a temper,’ and point ‘to domestic issues with a past wife and a recent ex-girlfriend, and a road rage incident that made national TV,'” the wrongful death lawsuit complaint said.

Uber and Rasier require that drivers undergo a screening process, which reviews their driving and criminal histories, the complaint said, and the companies are able to deactivate drivers’ accounts for crashes or breaking traffic laws. It alleges that Bernadel’s history of traffic citations and “known history of violence” should have prevented him from being an Uber driver and that the company did not follow its policies by allowing Bernadel to access the platform.

Information for the attorney representing Bernadel in the lawsuit was not available Wednesday evening. An Uber representative declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.