A Lyft driver from Texas, identified as 27-year-old Philip Kim, tragically lost his life after being allegedly lured and shot by a passenger using a false identity. The assailant then abandoned Kim on the roadside and fled with his vehicle, according to the victim’s family. A recently filed lawsuit claims that Lyft was aware of potential threats to drivers in the area due to previous incidents but failed to take measures to protect them.

The lawsuit, brought forth by Kim’s family, accuses Lyft of prioritizing profits over safety. “Philip’s death is a consequence of Lyft’s negligence and greed,” the legal document states. It criticizes Lyft for sending Kim to a location without informing him about earlier violent carjackings that targeted rideshare drivers.

Filed on Wednesday, the complaint alleges that Lyft dispatched Kim to a part of Harris County where two other rideshare drivers had been recently robbed at gunpoint and carjacked. These incidents were reported less than a week before Kim’s murder on February 26, 2025.

The lawsuit emphasizes that these previous attacks occurred near the same area where Kim was sent. “Lyft was aware of at least two earlier physical assaults and carjackings in the vicinity,” the complaint contends. Despite this knowledge, Lyft sent Kim to the location, where he was subsequently robbed, shot, and killed.

The complaint argues that Lyft’s decision to dispatch Kim to that location directly contributed to his assault and death. “Lyft had a responsibility to exercise reasonable care towards the public, passengers, and drivers like Philip,” the lawsuit asserts.

Court documents reveal that Anthony Perkins, an 18-year-old, faces capital murder charges in connection with Kim’s death and the two related incidents mentioned in the lawsuit. Prosecutors allege Perkins shot Kim and then stole his car, eventually 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.”