MIAMI — A Florida woman is accused of fatally shooting another woman while they were passengers inside a crowded Uber ride in downtown Miami, authorities said.
Natalia Lasha Harrell, 24, of Miami, was arrested Tuesday and charged with one count of second-degree murder with a weapon, according to Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation online booking records.
According to the Miami Police Department, officers and paramedics responded to a call at about 2:30 a.m. EDT, the Miami Herald reported. Upon arrival, authorities found Gladys Yvette Borcela, 28, unresponsive inside a Uber vehicle, according to the newspaper. According to an arrest report, Borcela had been shot in the torso.
According to surveillance video, the women entered a 2020 Cadillac Escalade at around 2:15 a.m. EDT, WPLG-TV reported.
The arrest report stated that video showed Harrell and Borcela getting into a verbal argument inside the vehicle, the television station reported. Investigators said that Harrell reached into her purse and produced a gun.
A witness in the SUV told police that Harrell warned Borcela when the argument turned physical, the Herald reported.
“You don’t want this; you don’t want me to go in my purse,” Harrell allegedly said.
Harrell then allegedly fired a single shot at Borcela, WPLG reported.
Video showed the Uber driver stopping the vehicle and all of the passengers except Borcela leaving and running from the scene, according to the television station.
City of Miami Fire Rescue transported Borcela to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, WTVJ reported.
Yvette Rivera, who said she was Borcela’s mother, wrote in a GoFundMe post that her daughter “was the life of the party and a beautiful soul to be around.”
“She always held her hand out for anyone that needed her even when she had battles of her own,” Rivera wrote. “She put her three beautiful children first and now they have to grow up and only hear of memories of their beautiful mother.”
Harrell was being held without bail at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, online records show.