A 54-year-old New Orleans Police Department employee who picked up a part-time gig as an Uber driver is dead after a passenger brutally killed her while working an evening shift.
Yolanda Dillion, 54, had responded to a request for a pick up at the Jefferson Parish Travelodge hotel in Louisiana’s capital. When she arrived, the suspect stabbed her to death in the hotel’s parking lot.
Dillion was rushed to a local hospital where she died of her injuries.
The suspect has been identified as 29-year-old Brandon Jacobs.
“He stated that he woke up yesterday morning and decided he was going to kill someone,” Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said in a news conference Friday.
Jacobs reportedly recorded the victim as she bled to death and posted the video on Facebook.
Louisiana authorities said they contacted the social media platform to have the video taken down.
“Luckily, he does not have a lot of followers,” Lopinto said.
Jacobs has been charged with second-degree murder. He is being held without bond.
Earlier that day, Jacobs ordered an Uber with the intent to kill the driver but decided he wouldn’t because he realized he would need a ride back to his hotel, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
Later, he ordered for another driver at the hotel where he was staying. Dillion responded to the request. It was the last request she would receive.
“He stabbed her from behind and then casually walked to his room,” authorities say.
“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,” Lopinto said.
Officials added that Dillion had been working for the NOPD for 10 years. She was known to be “quiet and humble” and did great work for the department.
“This was just something that definitely blindsided everyone,” the police chief said. “My church member for decades, a woman with a heart of gold & a deep love of God was murdered yesterday,” said Wendell Pierce, an actor for The Wire who was friends with the victim. “The murderous violence of New Orleans & this country has come even closer to me personally. We are in crisis.”
