Seattle rideshare drivers mourn, seek solutions after homicides

Violence has impacted many Seattle-area rideshare drivers in recent years, four of whom were murdered.  

Amare Geda, a 52-year-old father of two, was shot and killed on Aug. 8, 2023 by an 18-year-old carjacker while working in SODO.

Mahamadou Kabba, a 35-year-old father of five, was killed on Jan. 12, 2023 in Renton in a seemingly random shooting that seriously wounded two other men.

Mohamed Kediye, a 48-year-old father of six, was killed while driving in South Lake Union on Sept. 11, 2022 when another driver pulled up next to him and opened fire. Seattle police have not yet arrested anyone in the case.

Cherno “Che” Ceesay was a 28-year-old driver working in Issaquah. He was stabbed to death on Dec. 19, 2020 by two passengers who police say created an Uber account with fake names and killed Ceesay in an attempt to steal his car.

Drivers say their cars are often targeted for random shootings. In February, Bashir Aden was driving in the Rainier Beach neighborhood when a car pulled up alongside him at a light and a passenger started shooting at him. Aden ducked and avoided getting hit, but the bullets damaged his engine and totaled the car.

Jewel Davis said it’s not just gun violence drivers have to worry about. The Seattle Rideshare Drivers Association secretary is a former rideshare driver who quit over concerns about violence.

Davis has been sexually harassed by passengers. She was punched by a stranger in a restaurant bathroom in SeaTac between airport runs. Because drivers make the most money during surge pricing, Davis said they’re incentivized to do late-night pick-ups after bars let out, which has led to close calls with drunk drivers on the road.

Davis thinks rideshare drivers are targeted in part because they (along with passengers) are barred by Uber and Lyft policy from carrying weapons.

A 2023 report by the advocacy group Gig Workers Rising drew on newspaper articles, police reports and court records to tally driver deaths. It found that in 2022 at least 31 rideshare drivers and app delivery drivers across the U.S. were killed. That’s a marked increase from the organization’s previous survey, which found 50 app drivers had been killed between 2017 and January 2022.

A survey of 900 drivers across the country conducted by another progressive group, the Strategic Organizing Center, found that 67% of rideshare drivers have experienced workplace violence ranging from verbal abuse to assault to shootings and stabbings.