ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — An Uber driver is in critical condition after police say he was assaulted in a St. Petersburg parking lot.
Officers were called to the McDonald’s on 34th Street North around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday and found 47-year-old Marvin Carroll beaten and seriously injured on the pavement.
Investigators say Carroll was called to pick someone up at the McDonald’s. When he arrived, several young men and teens got into his car.
A relative who was in the parking lot told Carroll not to accept them as passengers because one of them, a 17-year-old, had been reported as a runaway earlier in the day and she was trying to take him home.
Carroll then told everyone to get out of his car.
Police say two in the group, the 17-year-old runaway and 21-year-old Salvatore Henderson, refused to get out of the car and started hitting Carroll.
When Carroll got out of the car, police say the two punched him and knocked him down. The Uber driver then fell and hit his head on the pavement.
Carroll remains in critical condition.
Both Henderson and the 17-year-old left the scene, but were arrested a short time later and charged with aggravated battery.
Uber says the person who requested the ride from Carroll has now been removed from the app.
The company tells us Carroll has been a driver since August 2017. They released this statement to News Channel 8:
We are very saddened by this news and our hearts go out to the driver-partner and his family. Violence is absolutely not tolerated on the Uber app and we will work with law enforcement to help in any way we can.”
