GILBERT, Ariz. — "She's yelling help me, help me. She closes the door and in my mind I'm like 'what is this?'"
Simon Kunthara called 911 after a woman came frantically to his house saying that she had just been strangled and held at gunpoint while driving a Lyft customer.
"I see her screaming and, you know, obviously she's very distraught," Kunthara said.
The Lyft driver was hiding from an assailant who she claimed began strangling her shortly after the pick-up. She had fought the man off with a box cutter and ran to the nearest house.
"And so since he was choking, like this, she said that she slightly, you know, attacked him like that with the box cutter," Kunthara said talking about the attack with details he learned from the victim.
The attack happened around 4:30 p.m. on Friday near Greenfield and Ocotillo Roads. The driver was left bruised and terrified after she claimed that the man told her that she was going to die.
The Gilbert SWAT team responded to the neighborhood and found the suspect, 18-year-old Derrick Carver, a block away from Kunthara's house.
"I saw them in their full gear with guns out, which never happens around here," said neighbor Shelby Habib. The neighborhood, mostly comprised of million-dollar houses, does not often experience violent crime.
Police said that when the driver fought back, Carver took off out of the vehicle running in the direction of his home. He left behind a Walmart back containing an unopened box of condoms. The receipt had Carver's name.
Kunthara said he was just glad to have had his garage door open. He couldn't believe a gun-wielding suspect was in his driveway.
Carver faces charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and carrying of a deadly weapon.
Lyft provided the following statement about the incident:
"Safety is fundamental to Lyft, and the incident described is deeply disturbing. We have removed the rider from the Lyft community, reached out to the driver to offer support and are assisting law enforcement with their investigation."