Uber driver shoots, kills man in what Polk sheriff calls a ‘classic’ stand your ground case

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said when an Uber driver shot and killed a man he thought was threatening him, it was a “classic” stand your ground case.

The driver told deputies he was being chased and threatened by a 34-year-old Winter Haven man while on Dundee Road in Polk County. The driver shot the man early Tuesday, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

The incident started late Monday into early Tuesday when a woman requested an Uber to take her home from the Grove Lounge on U.S. Highway 27 in Dundee where she was drinking. According to the sheriff’s office, another woman who did not know her helped her into the Uber when it arrived.

Robert Westlake, 38, of Lake Wales, was the Uber driver who picked up the woman from the bar and they started driving west on Dundee Road in his Hyundai Elantra, according to the sheriff’s office.

The woman who helped the passenger into the Uber then started getting text messages from what the sheriff’s office called her “on-again off-again” boyfriend, Jason Boek. Texts indicated Boek thought his girlfriend got into the Uber after seeing her walk outside and said he would “beat up” the driver, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Grady Judd described Boek during a live-streamed news conference Wednesday as “explosive” and said he was “stalking” his girlfriend.

A Ford F250 truck “aggressively” drove up behind Westlake’s Hyundai east of Carl Floyd Road. The truck passed the Hyundai and pulled in front of it, slowing down to a stop, dash camera video from the Uber shows. Westlake stopped his car behind the truck.

Westlake told deputies he thought the driver of the truck, later identified as Boek, was trying to run him off the road, according to the sheriff’s office. The truck did not belong to Boek, whose license had been suspended in May, and deputies say it was borrowed from a friend.

Boek got out of the truck and walked toward Westlake. Judd quoted Boek as saying, “You know I got a pistol, want me to shoot you?”

“That was a terrible mistake on Jason’s part,” Judd said.

Westlake, a concealed weapon permit holder and licensed armed security guard, grabbed his handgun from the driver’s side door of his car and fired one shot at Boek, according to the sheriff’s office.

Westlake called 911 and started CPR, but Boek died, according to the sheriff’s office. Westlake is cooperating with investigators.

Dashboard camera video from the Uber provided by the sheriff’s office shows the interaction and shooting taking place in seconds.

Judd called it a justified homicide “all day long.”

“This is a classic stand your ground case,” Judd said. “This was the intent of the law.”

The investigation is ongoing. Investigators say the two men did not know each other, the Uber passenger did not know Boek or the woman who helped her into the vehicle.

A search warrant executed on the truck Boek drove revealed a marijuana cigarette and a glass pipe with methamphetamine residue inside the truck. Boek was previously arrested for aggravated battery, battery, burglary, marijuana possession, forgery, larceny, resisting arrest and violation of probation, according to the sheriff’s office. He was on probation for battery when he was killed.

Judd said investigators had not found a pistol in the truck.

“At the end of the day, the message is clear: Don’t mess with the Uber driver,” Judd said.

This story was originally published August 29, 2018 at 11:49 AM.