Sheriff: Uber driver stabbed to death by passenger in back seat

HARVEY, La. (WVUE) - A woman working as an Uber driver was stabbed to death in the parking lot of a hotel by a man that “just wanted to kill someone,” according to Jefferson and Orleans parish authorities.

Details of the fatal stabbing were first handed down by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office just after 10 p.m. Thursday (Dec. 7). In the release, Sheriff Joseph Lopinto confirmed that a woman was found inside a vehicle with a stab wound in the parking lot of a Travelodge hotel in Harvey around 3 p.m.

The victim was transported to a hospital where she died from her injuries, Lopinto said.

In a press conference at noon Friday, joined by outgoing NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson, Sheriff Lopinto identified the victim as 54-year-old Yolanda Dillion, who officials say was slain after driving 29-year-old Brandon Jacobs from a location in New Orleans to the hotel.

Lopinto said the motive behind Jacobs’ random and brutal act was clear; he just wanted to kill someone. After taking him into custody a few hours after the stabbing, Lopinto says Jacobs provided deputies with a full confession.

“His confession basically stated that he woke up yesterday morning and decided he was going to kill someone and decided that was going to be his day,” Lopinto told reporters.

Lopinto said Jacobs hailed an Uber ride earlier in the day but didn’t make that driver a victim upon realizing he would need a ride back to the hotel he was staying at, so he ordered a second ride back, which Dillion accepted through the rideshare app.

“We asked him specifically, ‘how did you pick her?’” Lopinto said. “His response was ‘I didn’t pick her, Uber picked her.’ She was the random person that picked him up that day.”

Moments after Dillion had driven Jacobs back to the Travelodge on the Westbank Expressway, he brutally stabbed her.

“He was in the back seat,” Lopinto detailed. “Stabbed her from behind. Exited the vehicle and just walked away casually.”

Lopinto said Jacobs recorded and posted a gruesome video of the aftermath on Facebook. The video has since been taken down.

Dillion, of Marrero, worked as an NOPD budget analyst for 10 years.

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Supt. Ferguson said that she was loved by many in the department.

“Our team is taking it pretty hard,” Ferguson said. “She will be dearly missed. She was very quiet... very humble. A quiet giant, I would say, because she meant a lot to this department and it tore our employees up.”

Dillion had also been caring for her ailing mother for the last several years, Ferguson said.

The investigation by Jefferson Parish authorities remains ongoing. Jacobs was booked for second-degree murder.

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