An Atlanta police officer, entitled to serve and protect the community, ordered a Lyft to ride home Wednesday evening. However, at a red light, authorities say the cop fatally shot the driver before fleeing out the window of the car. How did one thing lead to another?
Atlanta Police Department Officer Koby Minor told authorities he was leaving another cop’s house and ordered a Lyft ride home, per the police report. His driver, 35-year-old Reginald Folks, picked him up and headed down South Fulton Parkway. Minor said he heard the driver speaking on the phone in a different language and then believed he began hearing voices talking to him in his ear.
Minor told police he asked Folks to stop the car but he refused. Instead, when they reached a red light near Stonewall Tell Road in Union City around 12:30 a.m., Minor tried to get out of the car. That’s when things escalated.
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He then said he asked Folks to stop the car so he could get out, but he said the driver did not stop, the warrants say. At a red light, Minor told police he attempted to open his door but was unable. He then said he saw Folks turn around and try to reach into the back seat, according to the warrants.
Minor told police he reached for his firearm and shot Folks about three times, the warrants state. He then broke the car’s window and got out.
A driver who was in the area saw Minor waving his hand for help and stopped nearby, the witness told police. The witness said Minor told him Folks “is in a gay fraternity and was trying to recruit Minor into it and (he) believed he was getting kidnapped,” according to the warrants.
According to Folks’ family, he was never a threat to anyone.
“[I’m] very proud of the man he became. Everywhere I went, people met him and enjoyed him. He always ran into people that he knew. He was a friendly guy, very social. Reggie was pretty much the life of the party,” his mother, Marchelle, told 11Alive.
As a result of the shooting, Minor was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and murder. However, the department said in a release Minor was already on unpaid administrative leave following a December 2023 incident where he was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and drugs. Minor had been with the ADP since 2018.
Since his arrest, the department said his firearm was placed in the custody of the ADP. On the other hand, Lyft banned him from ever ordering a car through their app again.