INDIANAPOLIS — The Uber driver shot Wednesday night while picking up a rider on the northeast side of Indianapolis spoke to 13News from his hospital bed Friday afternoon as he recovers from a bullet wound in his lower back.
"I am happy because I am alive and my passenger, he's alive, too,” said 48-year-old Marco Batista.
Batista was feeling much better Friday and expects a full recovery after doctors repaired his colon and removed a bullet fragment from his scrotum.
Batista started giving Uber rides in 2016. But he never had a pickup before this week so frightening and dangerous.
Court records say 20-year-old Rakeasia Rodgers and her boyfriend were fighting at a home on Winthrop Avenue when Batista arrived about 8:45 p.m. to pick up Rodgers. But the boyfriend jumped in the car instead.
"One guy opened the door and jumped in my car,” said Batista. “And he was scared and yelling, ‘Go! Go! Go!’ and I didn't know what was going on when I saw one girl was running to my car."
Police say video cameras in the car show Rodgers firing shots at the gray 2016 Hyundai Sonata as Batista drove away. One bullet came through the trunk, the back seat, and the driver's seat and hit Batista in the lower back near the waist.
Batista called 911, but the boyfriend wanted Batista to keep driving.
"The 911 operator told me, 'Why you are driving? Stop, because we'll find you.' And I stopped and I put my car in the intersection,” said Batista.
The boyfriend jumped out before help arrived at 38th Street and Keystone Avenue, less than two miles from the shooting location.
"I was dizzy, and my body got hot, and I thought I would die," said Batista.
Batista is grateful he and his passenger survived. Batista immigrated to Indianapolis from Brazil. He supplements his Uber income as a soccer referee.
Police arrested Rodgers for aggravated battery. Police have arrested her three other times since 2020. She is scheduled for a bench trial later this month on theft and criminal trespass charges for allegedly stealing the purse of another dancer at Jaguars Show Club.
"I am so sorry for her, because she’s 20 years old, and screwed up her life,” said Batista. “I hope she can change her mind and pay for what she did and turn around and be a good citizen."
Batista hopes to be released from the hospital in a few days.
Court records indicate the fight started when the boyfriend took Rodgers’ cell phone. Rodgers told police she fired shots in the air to scare her boyfriend, but never pointed the gun at the car. She told police she was sorry she shot the Uber driver.
Police say the shooting is all on video from the cameras in Batista's Uber car, which he had installed and recording for his safety.