A 17-year-old whose email address linked him to a series of ride-share carjackings was charged Saturday with fatally shooting a Lyft driver in St. Louis.
Torian Wilson faces one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 45-year-old Elijah Newman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Newman, an immigrant from Ghana, was driving for Lyft to save money in the hopes of bringing his children to the U.S, said his friend, Elizabeth Hylton.
Officers found him dead in a car Thursday night; he had been shot in the torso.
According to charging documents filed Saturday, Wilson admitted to being at the scene of the shooting after police apprehended him nearby with a gun that matched a bullet casing found next to Newman’s body.
Detectives found Wilson by tracing his phone, after linking his email address to a series of recently reported carjackings of Uber drivers in the area, police said.
Lyft said in a statement that it was “heartbroken” and vowed to assist law enforcement with the investigation.
