New Orleans Police Department analyst killed by Uber passenger
Yolanda Dillion, who was also an Uber driver, was stabbed to death last week by a man who police said just wanted to kill someone and who posted the crime scene on Facebook.
A New Orleans Police Department analyst working part-time as an Uber driver was stabbed to death in a random attack by a man who claimed he simply wanted to kill someone. Yolanda Dillion, 54, had worked for a decade as a NOPD fiscal budget analyst.
Brandon Jacobs, 29, the suspect in custody, recorded the crime’s aftermath and posted it on Facebook. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto claimed Jacobs informed them he decided to kill someone when he woke up Thursday morning, according to WWL-TV. He reportedly intended to kill the first Uber driver he encountered, who drove him from the motel where he was staying to New Orleans, but realized he would need a ride back to his motel.Â
Dillion gave Jacobs an Uber ride to the motel, Travelodge in Jefferson Parish. Then, authorities say, she was stabbed to death.
“It took place in the vehicle,” Lopinto told media at a press conference Friday. “A major stab wound that incapacitated her almost immediately.” The suspect reportedly walked to his motel room, he said.
“Our team is taking it pretty hard,” NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said Friday, according to WWL. “She will be dearly missed. She was quiet. She was humble. She was a quiet giant.”
Jacobs, detained on a charge of second-degree murder, reportedly uploaded the footage of Dillion’s death to Facebook. The sheriff’s office contacted the social media platform, which quickly removed the post.
“I didn’t pick her,” Lopinto said Jacobs told investigators, WWL reported. “Uber picked her.”
According to WWL, Dillion lived with and cared for her mother, Edna Dillion, a cancer survivor in her 80s.
“My only child,” an emotional Edna Dillion said, according to WWL. “I ain’t have no other. When your child leaves in the morning, you expect to see them come back. You can’t just take somebody’s life, somebody who not doing you nothing.”
Yolanda Dillion, who also overcame breast cancer, is remembered for being actively involved in her church, spending her days working for the NOPD, being enrolled in sociology classes to earn a Ph.D., and using her “downtime” to drive for Uber to earn extra money for Christmas.
Edna Dillion said she was unaware her daughter was driving for Uber, but she knows it was so she could take care of the children at church, NOPD colleagues and, most importantly, her.
“She took very good care,” said the mother in mourning, WWL reported. “She made my groceries and cooked and bought everything. She paid all my bills and everything. He just left me with nobody.”
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