Police have charged and locked up an Uber driver after he locked up two women in his car and attempted to kidnap them.
The women told the police that around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, the driver picked them up, remarked on their looks, parked the car at an intersection and made the threatening comment, according to Chris Togneri, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh Police Department.
When the driver tried to lock the doors, the women jumped out of the back seat and ran away from the car shouting for help, Mr. Togneri said.
The authorities found the Uber driver, Richard Lomotey, 36, through his Uber app identification and photo.
The Uber driver has been charged with two counts of harassment and two counts of illegal imprisonment.
The arrest comes as a huge blow to the taxi-hailing app which has suffered multiple allegations of sexual assault on female passengers in the past.
Uber, in a statement, described the acts of the driver as “unacceptable.
“What’s been described is unacceptable,” Jodi Kawada Page, an Uber spokeswoman, wrote in an email. “The driver’s access to the app has been removed and we stand ready to cooperate with law enforcement to support their investigation.”
Dr. Lomotey has been put on leave at the Penn State Beaver campus while the university gathers more information, said Rachel A. Pell, Penn State’s associate vice president for news and media relations.
He “will not be in the classroom,” Ms. Pell said. “This is a criminal matter and we cannot comment further.”
No bail was assigned to Dr. Lomotey and he has been released from jail. He is expected to appear in court again on May 23. Attempts to reach him on Monday were unsuccessful, and it was unclear if he had retained a lawyer. The two women who reported the incident to the police have not been publicly identified.