Inset: Philip Kim (Kherkher Garcia, LLP). Background: The area in Houston, Texas, where Lyft driver Philip Kim was shot to death after picking up a rider who allegedly used a fake identity to lure him there (KPRC/YouTube).
A Texas Lyft driver was lured to his death by a rider using a fake identity, who shot the 27-year-old and “left him for dead on the side of the road” before escaping with his car, the man”s family says. Now, a new lawsuit alleges the ridesharing giant knew gig workers were being targeted in the area, with two incidents happening days earlier, but did nothing to protect its drivers.
“Philip paid the price of Lyft’s greed and negligence,” a legal complaint filed by driver Philip Kim’s family alleges. “Lyft dispatched Philip to this location without sharing any knowledge it had relating to the prior violent carjackings targeting rideshare drivers.”
The complaint, which was filed on Wednesday, accused Lyft of dispatching Kim to an area in Harris County where two other incidents involving rideshare drivers being robbed at gunpoint and carjacked had occurred, and had been reported less than a week before Kim was targeted and murdered on February 26, 2025.
“These incidents happened a short distance from the same location Lyft dispatched Philip to,” the complaint charges. “Lyft was on notice that at least two incidents of physical assaults and carjackings were reported in the immediate vicinity in the recent past from the date of the incident. Despite the knowledge of this risk, Lyft dispatched Philip to the location where he was subsequently robbed at gunpoint, shot, and murdered.”
Lyft’s dispatch of Philip was an “affirmative action which caused plaintiff’s assault and death,” according to the complaint. “Lyft owed a duty to act with due and reasonable care towards the public, to passengers, and to its drivers such as Philip,” the document says.
Court records show that Anthony Perkins, 18, is charged with capital murder for the Kim slaying and the two other incidents cited in the Kim complaint. Prosecutors say he shot and killed Kim before taking off in his car and crashing it.
“This murder was made even more senseless by the fact that [Kim’s] vehicle was recovered a mere eight blocks away, crashed into a ditch,” the complaint against Lyft says.
Police told the Kim family that two other assailants, who are believed to be minors, allegedly took part in the carjacking. “One is believed to have been apprehended and the other remains at large,” according to a statement from the family’s legal team.
Perkins, who is also named as a defendant in the Lyft complaint, is charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon for allegedly targeting a Lyft driver on Feb. 20, 2025, just six days before Kim was killed.
A probable cause affidavit for that incident says the victim was dispatched to an address in the 3000 block of Faulkner Street, roughly a half mile away from where Kim was dispatched, after receiving a trip “for a female passenger” who turned out to be Perkins and another male.
“[The victim] asked the males if they were waiting on Lyft, and they replied yes,” the affidavit says. “Shortly after [the victim] began driving, defendant Perkins and [the other suspect] pulled out guns and pointed them at [the victim’s] head. [The victim] described the guns as assault rifles with no stock.”
The affidavit says Perkins used his own mother’s name, phone number and Lyft account to order the trip that day. It’s unclear whether he allegedly did the same in the Kim slaying.
Kim’s father, Mark Kim, spoke to local NBC affiliate KPRC in March 2025 about his son’s murder and recounted how he was checking the location of an air tag on Kim’s keychain that night after he failed to pick up his phone.
“The car was moving to another spot after one hour later, no calls moving,” Kim said. “His phone was dead. I thought something was strange. I checked the Google Map; the car parking location was the Houston [Police] Department parking lot, and I thought there was something wrong. I asked the policeman why my car is here. Where is my son? What happened? And the policeman gave me the phone number to the Houston Homicide Department office.”
Mark Kim told KPRC that if he could speak to Perkins, he’d ask him “why” he did what he did to someone who was “just trying to get money” by working for Lyft.
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Mark Kim said. “I don’t know why innocent people are being picked on.”
Reached for comment Thursday by Law&Crime on the Kim family lawsuit, Lyft said it could not speak on ongoing litigation.
“This case is not just about one horrific crime; it is about a preventable tragedy,” said attorney Sadi R. Antonmattei-Goitia in a statement. “Lyft has long known that its platform can be exploited by individuals using fake identities, yet it failed to implement basic safeguards that could have protected drivers like Philip. This lawsuit is about accountability and forcing meaningful change so no other family endures this kind of loss.”
