Food delivery driver shot at while on the job in Auburn

AUBURN, Wash. — A DoorDash driver in Auburn said not long after he finished delivering a meal at around 12:45 p.m. on Friday, someone in a red pickup truck started shooting at him.

No suspects have been identified yet. It has the driver iso concerned that he asked KIRO 7 to not show his face or share his name. The driver is Black, and he believes he was targeted because of his race.

The victim said he was driving on A Street near downtown Auburn when he happened to make normal eye contact with a man in a red truck.

“A white man I don’t even know,” the delivery driver said. But he said the man wouldn’t stop staring. “Every time I’d try to drive up to move myself away from him, he would speed up,” he said.

He said another pickup truck boxed him in, and he couldn’t get away from the vehicles. Then he said one truck rammed into him.

“It was like they were running me off the road,” he said.

KIRO 7 saw the damage to his vehicle and the red paint from another vehicle on the black car.

“I said, ‘What are you guys doing?’ And the dude pulled out a gun,” the victim said.

He said by this point, he was on the phone with 911.

“She (the dispatcher) said, ‘Well did they shoot?’ Right when she says that, the pickup truck - it’s unbelievable - right when she says that, the pickup truck starts shooting,” the victim said.

KIRO 7 has filed public disclosure requests for the 911 calls.

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His car still has a bullet hole in the rear passenger side door and a dent on the front passenger side where a bullet hit the frame near the windshield.

No bullets went inside the vehicle, but the victim – who is a dad -- can’t help but think the worst.

“I’ve got kids that sit in this car,” he said.

The victim said he believes he was targeted because of his race. “Absolutely,” he said.

Auburn police said detectives are actively investigating and going over surveillance video along A Street.

“Anything that could show it was some sort of hate crime would be fully investigated,” said Cmdr. Dave Colglazier, with the Auburn Police Department.

But the victim said the worst part for him about the whole experience was actually the police response.

“For some odd reason, they were on me. What I was doing, if I was selling drugs. They were so blatant enough to just ask – ‘Was this a drug deal gone bad?’ That was like one of their first questions. I couldn’t believe it,” the victim said.

“I didn’t see anything about that in the report that would not be a standard question, but I wasn’t there,” Colglazier said. Most patrol officers in Auburn do not wear body cameras. Though the department is seeking funding to make that happen.

Police also said the victim did not allow them to search his vehicle.

“It is a completely legit question to ask him to search his car, not looking for contraband. What they were looking for was a bullet,” Colglazier said.

But the victim said that was never made clear, and so he refused.

“‘Oh, it wasn’t a drug deal?’ I just showed you that I was at work. ‘Well, can we search your car?’ Search my car for what?” the victim said. “No, I didn’t let them search my car. And no, I wasn’t hiding anything,” he said.

“It’s just nerve-wracking because I was chased down by two white men in pickup trucks and shot at, and nobody did anything. They don’t care,” the victim said.

Police said if the victim believes the response wasn’t appropriate, he can file a complaint. The victim said he intends to do so.

Colglazier indicated the incident may be tied to road rage and said, according to detectives, the victim was seen “speeding and weaving through traffic.” The victim said he was delivering food and drinks and was driving carefully until he tried to get away from the two pickup trucks.

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