Arrest Made In Lyft Driver Stabbing: Darien Police

DARIEN, CT — The man accused of stabbing a Lyft driver in Darien this past summer has been extradited back to Connecticut to be formally charged, according to the Darien Police Department.

On Oct. 6, Darien detectives traveled to Jessup, Maryland to extradite Abiola L. Shonowo, 28. Upon returning to Connecticut, he was charged with first-degree robbery, first-degree criminal attempt to commit assault and fourth-degree larceny.

Shonowo was scheduled for arraignment on Oct. 7.

On June 27 at 10:37 p.m., the Darien Police Department responded to a report of a single motor vehicle crash in the area of West Avenue and Holmes Avenue.

While responding, officers were told that a Lyft driver had been stabbed and a suspect had fled the scene with the driver's cell phone, police said.

The driver reported picking up a customer in Stamford, and while en route to a destination in Norwalk, the driver was stabbed several times shortly after entering Darien, police said.

The driver told police he intentionally crashed his car into a tree on West Avenue in order to stop the attack, police said. The driver was taken to the hospital and treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Darien detectives prepared, and were granted after judicial review, numerous search warrants for Lyft account information and phone records, which led to a primary suspect in Shonowo, police said.

Investigators determined that Shonowo was on probation in Maryland. A Baltimore County probation officer contacted Darien detectives notifying them that Shonowo had been arrested on July 4 in Baltimore County for unrelated crimes, police said.

Investigators reviewed the Maryland arrest reports and body camera footage and were able to determine that Shonowo was in possession of stolen property that further connected him to the Darien incident, police said.

An arrest warrant application was submitted and approved by a Stamford Superior Court judge on July 20 for Shonowo, with a court set bond of $1 million.

Shonowo was arrested again in Maryland on July 28 for a probation violation, police said.