Uber driver shot his teen passenger after attack, Broward police say. A mom wants answers
When Hollywood police found 19-year-old Miles McGlashan, he was bleeding next to a Chevy Malibu near his grandparents’ home. Bullet holes pierced his chest and back.
More than a month later, his mom isn’t satisfied with the explanation of how the Barry University student, who is in a medically induced coma, ended up like this.
What led up to the shooting on a residential street in Hollywood?
McGlashan attacked his Uber driver, and the driver then shot him, police told the Miami Herald on Friday. After the confrontation, the driver called 911 and was interviewed by officers.
The driver, whose identity has not been released, is not under arrest, according to police. The ride-share company told the Miami Herald that he has been taken off the road pending an investigation.
Hollywood officers found McGlashan the night of Nov. 9 bleeding while he stood next to a dark gray Malibu near North Park Road and Emerald Oaks Drive, according to a heavily redacted police report. His mother says he left her Plantation home in the Uber for the trip to his grandparents in Hollywood. She also said it’s possible her son was going to visit a friend who lives nearby.
Responding officers say McGlashan — listed in the report as the victim — had gunshot wounds to his chest and lower back. First responders applied pressure to his wounds and then took the college student to Memorial Regional Hospital.
In a redacted supplemental police report, the driver is described as wearing a beige raincoat, black shirt, pants and boots, and showing a bump on the left side of the head. It also says investigators collected a swab from behind the driver’s ear where he said he was punched.
April McGlashan, 42, Miles’ mother, is demanding to know the status of the investigation, and she wants the driver arrested. But she told the Herald on Wednesday that detectives haven’t called her in weeks, even to ask whether her son is still alive.
“What’s going on?” said McGlashan, who lives in Plantation. “They haven’t been transparent with us.”
Hollywood police won’t release additional information until detectives can interview Miles McGlashan for their investigation, police spokeswoman Deanna Bettineschi said.
More questions than answers
April McGlashan is still trying to make sense of what happened as her only son remains hooked to machines that filter his blood and help him breathe.
Surgeons have removed a chunk of a lung to stop internal bleeding and doctors have put him on dialysis because his kidneys aren’t working, his mother said. Miles McGlashan also suffered an “extensive liver injury,” medical records show.
“He is definitely fighting for his life,” she said.
During the last five weeks, McGlashan has been trying to fill in the blanks from her son’s intensive care unit hospital room with limited information from investigators.
She said that, according to doctors, a bullet entered through her son’s right flank and exited through his chest — damaging several organs along the way. And according to the detective in charge of the case, McGlashan said, her son was shot outside the vehicle after he punched the driver.
But McGlashan said that her son, a freshman and criminology major at Barry University in Miami Shores, where he lives in a dorm, has never been in a fight and has never been arrested. His name did not come up in a search of Miami-Dade and Broward criminal court records. She described him as funny, smart and calm, adding that he has lived a sheltered life “thinking everyone comes from nice families.”
“He has never been in a fight in his life,” she said. “He would never.”
What comes next
April McGlashan and her son’s paternal grandmother have visited Miles at the hospital every day for the past five weeks. She said her biggest concern is that her son’s life might never be the same — physically and emotionally. To help him going forward, a family friend has raised nearly $25,000 online as of Friday.
“I’m mourning who he was,” she said. “His innocence is gone.”
Despite the situation, McGlashan said she is grateful that her son didn’t die.
“We have to focus on the fact that he is alive.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 4:01 PM.
