Del City Police Arrest Suspect Accused Of Choking & Attempting To Rob Ride-Share Driver

Police arrested a robbery suspect after he claimed to be assaulted by a ride-share driver.

Del City Police said it happened the other way around. The suspect was accused of choking and attempting to rob the driver over the weekend.

The 21-year-old suspect has been in jail since Sunday on a complaint of robbery by force or fear. Del City police released the body camera footage on Tuesday of the moments leading up to Tyquan Jones’ arrest.

Del City officers were in the area of Reno Avenue and North Sooner Road when a blue SUV pulled up early Sunday morning. A shirtless Jones jumped out of the back seat asking for help.

“He just assaulted me, bro, he just assaulted me bro in his car,” said Tyquan Jones, suspect. 

However, Jones could not tell officers how the Lyft driver assaulted him. After speaking to the driver, police determined it was Jones who assaulted the driver during a ride to Midwest City. 

“He started giving demands for the driver to drive him to the Crest store on Reno in Midwest City so he could withdraw money to give to him,” said Major Bradley Cowden, Del City Police Department.

The driver told police he refused to give Jones any money. When the driver refused Jones’ demands the suspect allegedly attempted to grab the driver's phone and patted his pockets for weapons. The driver said he tried to calm Jones and de-escalate the situation.

“He reached around the front seat, grabbed him by the throat,” said a Del City officer. “He’s like, ‘I’ll choke you out,’ or something like that.” 

Police said the driver had marks on his neck from the choking. The driver told police he tried to use the Lyft app to alert them, but Jones was grabbing his phone. 

“Each individual person has to make their decision for safety and obviously not pick up anybody they feel is not safe for them,” said Cowden. 

The trip ended in another ride for Jones, one to the county jail. 

The Lyft driver told News 9 by phone at first, that he was not going to report the assault but changed his mind saying he did not want Jones to escalate and assault another driver.

Jones is being held in the Oklahoma County Detention Center on a $50,000 bond. He has a previous charge out of Cleveland County for car theft.