BOSTON, MA — A 24-year-old man was arrested after allegedly carjacking an Uber driver at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Columbus Avenue on Nov. 6.
District 4 officers responded to the scene at about 6:30 p.m. for a report of a carjacking.
Upon arrival, officers located the victim, an Uber driver, who was highly distressed.
EMS was requested to evaluate the victim on the scene.
A witness provided a statement, observing the victim struggling with a person in the back seat of the vehicle.
The witness saw the victim manage to escape the vehicle and scream for help as the suspect moved from the rear seat to the driver’s seat and fled the scene in the victim’s car.
The victim stated she had picked up the suspect in Cambridge.
The assault occurred when the vehicle stopped at the Massachusetts Avenue and Columbus Avenue intersection, where she felt a cord or wire tighten around her neck, obstructing her breathing.
Officers utilized the victim’s phone, which remained inside the stolen vehicle, to track its location to the area of Stanwood Street and Blue Hill Avenue.
The vehicle was successfully stopped, and the suspect, Christopher Dawkins, 24, of Dorchester, was apprehended without further incident.
Dawkins will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court and charged with carjacking, strangulation/suffocation, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and receiving stolen motor vehicle.
