Miami-Dade man shoots Uber Eats driver in buttocks for trying to get girlfriend’s number, cops say
He’s also accused of drug trafficking
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A 33-year-old man is facing an attempted murder charge after Miami-Dade deputies said he shot an Uber Eats driver in the buttocks after he tried to get his girlfriend’s phone number after a delivery.
According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, the shooting happened early Monday morning outside the Pearl Dadeland Apartments at 7440 N. Kendall Drive.
An arrest report states that an MDSO deputy responded to the area just after 3:30 a.m. after receiving reports of a gunshot. A bystander flagged down the deputy “and reported that a group of individuals had been involved in an altercation but left the area minutes before deputies arrived.”
At about the same time, South Miami police reported that the victim arrived at Baptist Health South Miami Hospital with a gunshot wound, deputies said.
The victim would tell deputies that he delivered food to a woman living at the building about an hour before and “engaged in a brief conversation with (her) and took a liking to her,” according to the report.
Deputies said he returned at around 3:25 a.m. “in an attempt to see the (woman) again and possibly obtain her phone number,” but was unsuccessful.
As the man was going back to his car, deputies said the woman’s boyfriend, Khuslen Saruultuya, pulled up in a Chevrolet Corvette.
Deputies said Saruultuya ordered the victim “to lie on the ground” as he pointed a handgun at him.
“The victim complied and laid flat on the ground (and Saruultuya) fired one round, which grazed the victim on his right buttock,” the report states. “While the victim remained on the ground, (Saruultuya) struck him on the back of the head with the buttstock of the handgun, causing a two-inch open wound.”
According to the report, Saruultuya then ordered the man to stand and pointed the gun at his head, telling him, “I am going to kill you.”
The report states that Saruultuya’s girlfriend, witnessing the incident, pleaded with him, yelling, “Babe, please stop!”
The victim told deputies that Saruultuya “chased” him around the Corvette, still pointing the gun at him, as the woman “attempted to hold (Saruultuya) back.”
Authorities said they were able to trace the Corvette’s license plate back to Saruultuya and, after the victim picked him out of a photo lineup, went to his unit at the nearby Palmer Dadeland Apartments to take him into custody.
Deputies said during a “cursory sweep” of his unit at the building, located at 8217 SW 72nd Ave., they found a trove of illegal drugs, including Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone, amphetamines, ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana.
They said Saruultuya also had 16 pills of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and two bags of the party drug tusi, also known as “pink cocaine.”
“Those are my prescriptions,” Saruultuya said in court on Tuesday, before Judge Mindy Glazer admonished him to not speak about the facts of the case.
Besides attempted murder, the Mongolia-born Saruultuya is now facing a host of other charges, including aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and nine felony drug trafficking charges, according to jail records.
As of Tuesday evening, he was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
In a statement, an Uber spokesperson called the allegations “concerning” and said the platform is “continuing to investigate.”
Miami-Dade man shoots Uber Eats driver in buttocks for trying to get girlfriend’s number, cops say