An autistic teen who was mistakenly dropped off in the wrong neighborhood by an Uber driver was shot in the back as he tried to flee two attackers.
Claude Woosk, 18, ended up on the corner of Lenox Street and East Warren Avenue on Detroit’s east side last month rather than his home in neighboring River Rouge. It was not immediately clear how the two addresses became mixed up.
Panicked and confused due to the unfamiliar setting, the teen’s family told FOX 2 that he called his sister, Violet Woosk, who told him to take a photo of a nearby address so his family could come and pick him up.
It was there that authorities said that Woosk ran into Robert Pugh, 47, and another man who allegedly frisked the teen and accused him of taking photographs of his home.
“Some guy came out and yelled, ‘Why are you taking pictures of the house?'” Violet Woosk recalled hearing from the other side of the phone during the April 9 incident.
The victim's sister said Woosk pleaded with the men and promised to delete the photograph.
“All you heard was my brother saying, ‘Ow ow ow,’ and then it was complete silence,” she said, followed by sounds of screams.
As Woosk turned to run away, Pugh allegedly opened fire with a handgun, striking the teen in the lower back.
Violet Woosk said her brother was unarmed and screaming at the men that he was lost, trying to find his way home.
First responders arrived at the scene and took Woosk to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Doctors worked to save his kidney but said that he could eventually be paralyzed.
FOX 2 reported that Woosk was released from the hospital around April 18.
The Detroit Police Department said that Pugh turned himself in on April 15. He was charged two days later with assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, and three counts of felony firearm.
During Pugh’s first appearance in a Detroit courthouse on April 17, defense attorney Carla Marable said she believes Woosk’s shooting was “a mis-identification.”
Marable said Pugh didn’t live at the home near Warren and Lenox and has no prior criminal record.
The defendant is due in court for a preliminary exam on Friday, after it was rescheduled from Monday.
