LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. — A 16-year-old girl charged with killing her Uber driver was captured on Walmart surveillance video « walking nonchalantly throughout the store » holding a knife in one hand and a machete in another, prosecutors said.
LINCOLNWOOD, Ill. — A 16-year-old girl charged with killing her Uber driver was captured on Walmart surveillance video « walking nonchalantly throughout the store » holding a knife in one hand and a machete in another, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Eliza Wasni later used those weapons kill 34-year-old Grant Nelson in Lincolnwood, Illinois.
That’s just one of the details that Cook County State’s Attorney Michelle Cunningham revealed in a news conference Wednesday after Wasni appeared in court on first-degree murder charges. She is being held without bond for allegedly killing Nelson, of Wilmette.
According to Cunningham, Wasni hailed the first of three Uber drivers at about 1: 25 a.m. Tuesday, and was driven to a train station in Des Plaines.
At 2: 18 a.m., a second Uber driver took her from the train station to a Walmart store. That’s when Cunningham says the teen removed a knife and a machete from their packaging at the store and walked around holding them.
Then she left Walmart with the knife and machete, without paying, and was not stopped by any personnel, Cunningham said.
The third Uber driver, Nelson, picked up Wasni in his Hyundai Sonata a few blocks west of the Walmart. About two minutes after Wasni got in the car, Cunningham says Nelson was stabbed by Wasni from the backseat. Cunnningham says Nelson was able to maneuver his car into a condo apartment building driveway near Lincoln and Touhy. Cunningham said he got out of the car and was heard banging and screaming at the lobby door saying « Help me! Help me! I’m going to die! » That’s when residents called 911.
Cunningham says Wasni tried to flee in Nelson’s vehicle but she hit a median near the scene. Officers say she left the car, which was covered in blood, running in the middle of Lincoln Avenue and fled on foot.
Cunningham says police found Nelson laying in the grass near the scene. He told officers that he was an Uber driver and that his passenger had attacked him. He was then transported to an area hospital where he later died from his injuries.
According to Cunningham, another group of officers later found Wasni crouched behind an office building’s air conditioning unit not too far from the scene. She had the machete in one hand and a knife in another. When she wouldn’t drop the weapons at the officers’ requests, one of the officers tazed her and she was taken into custody.
Autopsy results of the victim are still pending.
Walmart did not immediately offer a statement regarding the incident.
