Sheriff: Suspect murdered Uber driver because ‘he wanted to kill someone’

Detectives said that a suspect accused of murdering his Uber driver confessed to detectives and uploaded a video of the attack to social media.

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Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto announced the arrest of Brandon Jacobs in a news release and said Jacobs is charged with second-degree murder for the death of Yolanda Dillion. Dillion was working as a driver for the ridesharing service Uber on Dec. 9 when she was stabbed repeatedly, Lopinto said.

In a news conference, Lopinto described Jacobs and Dillion as strangers prior to the Uber ride, The Washington Post reported.

“His confession basically stated that he woke up yesterday morning and decided he was going to kill someone, and decided that was going to be the day,” Lopinto said. “When we asked him specifically, ‘How did you pick her?’ his response was, ‘I didn’t pick her. Uber picked her,’ meaning that she was the random person that picked him up that day.”

While Jacobs allegedly planned to murder a different Uber driver that picked him up from his room at a Travelodge and took him to a location in New Orleans, he changed his mind after realizing he would have no ride home, NOLA.com reported. He then allegedly decided to kill the driver who picked him up for the return trip.

“He was in the back seat,” Lopinto told WVUE. “Stabbed her from behind. Exited the vehicle and just walked away casually.”

Investigators told The Washington Post that Jacobs recorded video of the attack, which Lopinto described as “horrifying,” and uploaded it to Facebook. Deputies worked with Facebook to remove the video.

Dillion was moonlighting as an Uber driver to earn extra money, while her primary job was working as a fiscal analyst with the New Orleans Police Department, The Associated Press reported.

“When your child leaves in the morning, you expect to see them come back,” Dillion’s mother, Edna, told WWL-TV. “You can’t just take somebody’s life, somebody who not doing you nothing.”

Dillion lived with and was a caretaker for her 83-year-old mother, NOLA.com reported. Edna told the outlet that she had been concerned about her daughter’s safety working for Uber.

“I tried to get her to stop,” Edna told NOLA.com. “I didn’t want her to do it. But she wasn’t afraid of anything.”

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