Suspects arrested after Uber carjacking

Police are investigating the carjacking of an Uber driver’s vehicle that ended in a hit-and-run collision in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond District early Wednesday morning.

San Francisco police spokeswoman Officer Grace Gatpandan said today that officers responded to a report of a carjacking at about 12:26 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of 10th Avenue and Geary Boulevard.

Gatpandan said the driver, who picks ups and drops off fares for the transportation network company Uber, was standing outside of his car, a Toyota Corolla, when four men allegedly surrounded him. One of the men punched the Uber driver in the face and all four suspects got into his car and drove away, Gatpandan said.

About 20 minutes later, police located the Toyota abandoned about a block away, Gatpandan said. The suspects had crashed the car into a parked vehicle near the intersection of 11th Avenue and Anza Street before fleeing the scene.

Officers towed the car as evidence in the investigation into the hit-and-run collision and carjacking. Gatpandan said all four men were described as being in their early 20s. Three of them were described as being Hispanic and the fourth was described as being either a Pacific Islander or Asian.

The man who punched the victim, was described as a Hispanic man with short black hair, no facial hair and a medium build, wearing a dark shirt and dark pants at the time of the assault, Gatpandan said.

According to the weekly update written by the SFPD’s Richmond District police station, officers detained the suspect who punched the Uber driver as the suspect allegedly waited nearby for another Uber driver to pick him up.

The weekly update also said that the detained suspect’s girlfriend came looking for him at the station at which point officers found two more suspects allegedly in her car outside the station. Gatpandan said the incident remains under investigation.