Lamar McCray Was Shot on a Richmond Lyft Pickup. What Charges Have Been Reported?
A passenger got into Lamar McCray’s Lyft on Old Denny Street in Richmond’s East End late on August 23, 2025, and told him to go. McCray told CBS 6 that a man came up to the passenger side and asked if he was with the rider. “No sir, I’m just a Lyft driver,” McCray recalled saying.
He pulled away. Before he reached the stop sign, he heard glass shatter and felt a bullet hit him. Police identified the man as Elwood Lewis, 46.
The charge reports below are from August 2025. As of November 10, 2026, those sources do not report a later charge, a plea, a conviction, or a sentence. Lewis is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
How police connected the two calls
Richmond police were called at about 11:39 p.m. to the 800 block of Old Denny Street, near Gillies Creek Park, for a report of shots fired, CBS 6 reported. A witness said a man had fired shots in the street. About two minutes later, another caller reported an injured driver parked about a mile away, in the 2700 block of East Main Street in Shockoe Bottom.
Officers found a driver and a passenger in the vehicle, according to CBS 6. The driver had a gunshot wound that was not considered life-threatening and was taken to a hospital. The rear window was broken. The passenger was not injured.
McCray told CBS 6 this was his first rideshare request of the evening. The passenger said, “Go, go, go, go, go.” CBS 6 reported that he pulled over at a gas station at the top of Shockoe on Main Street. “The guy, the passenger, held my wound while he’s calling 911,” McCray told 12 On Your Side.
Detectives said the shooter fired toward the vehicle after the driver picked up the passenger, CBS 6 reported.
What the August 2025 charges say
CBS 6’s first police story said Richmond police arrested Elwood Lewis, 46, of Richmond, and charged him with shooting into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Additional charges were pending. The motive was still unclear in that story.
In the later interview, CBS 6 said Lewis had been charged with several weapons violations, and that more charges were pending. Crime Insider sources told CBS 6 that detectives believe Lewis fired out of frustration: the passenger was leaving a loud party next door to where Lewis lived. 12 On Your Side reported that police had not shared a motive, and that Lewis, 46, was facing multiple charges.
Those are the charge accounts in the linked stories. They do not match each other word for word. They also stop in August 2025. As of November 10, 2026, they do not report which charges, if any, were added later, and they do not report a plea or a disposition.
His injuries
One bullet grazed McCray. Another entered his shoulder and fractured his collarbone, 12 On Your Side reported. “The bullet is still in me,” McCray said from his hospital room. “Where it’s at it’s too risky for the surgery.” McCray said doctors were monitoring him day by day.
CBS 6 reported that McCray could not work, would not drive rideshare again, and faced rehabilitation of at least three months, with future surgeries likely.
In a fundraiser he organized on August 26, 2025, McCray wrote that he is 36 and a father of two, and that he was unable to work at a full-time job he had been hired for three weeks earlier. He asked for help with medical bills and bills at home. That page is his own account. It is not a court record.
What Lyft said
Lyft sent 12 On Your Side this statement: “The behavior described is reprehensible and has no place in society. Our thoughts are with the driver, and we’ve been in touch to offer support. We have also reached out to the rider, and we stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.”
Lyft officials told CBS 6 that weapons are prohibited and that technology monitors unusual activity such as long stops or route deviations. Lyft said it would reach out if a ride seems suspicious, and that the app has an integrated emergency response. Those statements describe company policy. They are not a finding about this pickup.
What the federal report does not count
A July 24, 2026 Government Accountability Office report, GAO-26-108552, found that available data sources “do not provide a full picture of the number of rideshare and taxi assaults against drivers and passengers from 2021 through 2025.” “There is no federal requirement to collect such data,” the GAO wrote.
The same findings section says three rideshare companies voluntarily report some assault data. As of June 2026, the two companies that had publicly reported fatal and sexual-assault figures for 2021 and 2022 “have not reported the number of assaults for 2023 through 2025 or data on non-fatal physical assaults.”
The report does not mention Lamar McCray, Richmond, or this shooting. Its national limits are not a count of what happened on Old Denny Street. They are not a finding about how often a Richmond pickup ends in gunfire.
Sources
- CBS 6 (WTVR), initial police report on the shooting and arrest, August 25, 2025
- CBS 6 (WTVR), interview with Lamar McCray
- 12 On Your Side (WWBT), hospital interview with Lamar McCray, August 25, 2025
- “Help Lamar Recover from a Lyft Tragedy,” GoFundMe organized by Lamar McCray
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, Rideshare and Taxi Safety, GAO-26-108552, July 24, 2026
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