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Arizona Man Accused Of Slitting Uber Driver's Throat In Seemingly Unprovoked Attack
“Blood just started gushing out,” the driver, who survived and got more than 20 staples across his neck, later said of the attack.
An Arizona man allegedly slit the throat of his Uber driver in a seemingly unprovoked attack before hopping out of the car and running from the scene, police said.
Francisco J. Diaz, 45, was later arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
The alleged attack occurred Wednesday night after an Uber driver had picked up a customer he knew as “Francisco” from the Buffalo Wild Wings and began to drive him to a Tolleson home.
The driver, who later received more than 20 staples across his neck, told KPNX shortly before they reached the destination the passenger indicated he wanted to be let out and said that as he turned to look at the passenger he felt “something run along his neck or throat area,” and then noticed warm liquid was coming out of the wound.
“Blood just started gushing out,” the man said.
Court documents show that Diaz and the driver, who asked not be identified, continued to struggle before Diaz allegedly jumped out of the car and fled the scene. The driver also suffered several deep cuts to his hands during the struggle.
After the man fled the scene, the driver called 911 and drove away, before eventually pulling over and waiting for emergency vehicles.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m not going to die,’” the driver told the local station.
Police were later able to identify Diaz because he had reportedly given his business card to a waitress at the restaurant earlier that night, KTVK/KPHO reports.
When police confronted him, he allegedly admitted to pulling out a knife and swinging it at the driver, the police report said.
He told police he had “felt the Uber driver was going to harm him.”
However, other witnesses at the restaurant that night report that Diaz had been acting strangely before he got into the car.
Liz Glenn told Fox 10 she had seen the man at the bar earlier that night and claimed he was showing off his knife.
"He said, 'You don't know what I'm capable of,'" Glenn said. "He said that over and over again, to different people who were trying to get him out of the bar and away from the situation."
Diaz is currently being held on a $500,000 cash only bond.
[Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office]
