Former Stamford Resident Charged In DoorDash Scheme Shot Dead In NY: Police

STAMFORD, CT — A 22-year-old former Stamford resident who was accused of swindling nearly $1 million from DoorDash drivers in a multi-year scheme was shot dead in New York on Jan. 6, two days before he was scheduled to appear in Stamford Superior Court on the matter, according to police.

David Smith was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest on Monday morning in New Rochelle, N.Y., police there said in a news release. Smith was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Smith had a scheduled court date Wednesday in Stamford where he was expected to accept or reject a plea deal from a Superior Court judge. He previously rejected an offer from state prosecutors that would have had him plead guilty to several charges in exchange for a five-year prison sentence.

On June 5, 2023, Smith was arrested in Mount Vernon, N.Y. by the FBI Westchester Safe Streets Task Force on a warrant out of Stamford.

Stamford police were first tipped off to Smith in January of that year when they responded to a domestic dispute between Smith and another party at an apartment on Prospect Street and discovered stacks of cash, dozens of payment cards, and safes, Stamford police investigator Mike Stempien said at the time.

In total, officers pulled around $733,000 in cash from the apartment, Stempien said.

Search warrants found that the majority of funds coming onto the payment cards were DoorDash driver payments, Stempien said. Investigators also performed search warrants on a few cell phones that belonged to Smith.

Citing an arrest warrant, Stempien said Smith would randomly choose a restaurant, primarily in California, and start a DoorDash delivery to a nearby address.

Once the food delivery was en route, Smith would contact the driver purporting to be DoorDash support and say there was an issue with the order and that the driver's account was frozen, Stempien said.

"These drivers obviously wanted to cooperate. They wanted to have their accounts unfrozen," Stempien said.

Smith would either send a verification code to the drivers or a phishing website link that appeared to be a DoorDash login to gain access to driver accounts, Stempien said.

"Once he's in their account, he would change their deposit information to one of these cards he was in possession of. So rather than [money] being sent to their own bank accounts, they're being sent to these payment cards in possession of David Smith," Stempien said.

Smith would trigger an automatic payment and tell the drivers to wait a few days, "just to give him a couple of days leeway to get away with this and steal their money before they even realized something was up or their paycheck was missing," Stempien added, noting that Smith would then go to an ATM to withdraw cash or make small purchases.

Investigators spoke with multiple DoorDash drivers who all told similar stories, Stempien said. According to bank records, police believed the scheme stretched as far back as June 2020, and went until January 2023.

Overall, police said Smith stole in excess of $950,000.

Stempien told Patch on Wednesday that Smith had moved out of Stamford since his initial arrest in June 2023. New Rochelle police noted Smith was a resident of Mount Vernon, N.Y.

Whether the cash seized from Smith's apartment will go to the victims in the case will be decided at a hearing in March when charges against Smith will be officially dropped, reported Marissa Alter of News 12 Connecticut.

"Several persons of interest" were taken in for questioning in connection with Smith's death, and another man was arrested after he sought medical treatment in New York City for a gunshot wound to his hand, according to New Rochelle police.

"Preliminary information suggests that the shooter and the victim knew each other, and that the incident may have stemmed from a personal dispute; the nature of this dispute is unknown at this time," police said in a news release.

New Rochelle police are asking anyone who has more information on the fatal shooting that occurred on Jan. 6 to contact the detective division at 914-654-2300.

Anonymous tips can be submitted through the department's confidential tip line at 914-632-COPS.