Murder of Delivery Driver In New Jersey Highlights Need For Self Defense

Petra Rhoden, a 43-year old driver for Door Dash in New Jersey, was shot and killed in an apparent robbery in Paterson on Friday night.

Though the investigation is ongoing, Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said that Rhoden likely tried to drive off after being shot because her vehicle had crashed through a fence and hit a shed.

No arrests were made as of Saturday morning, NBC Philadelphia reports.

DoorDash said in a statement to NBC News Sunday that it was cooperating with law enforcement in “their investigation of this horrific crime.”

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Petra Rhoden, a Paterson-area Dasher, and our thoughts are with her family, friends and loved ones,” the company said. “We have reached out to her family to offer our full support to them during this difficult time.”

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Delivery drivers have one of the most dangerous jobs around, and in New Jersey their job is even more hazardous, since the possibility of getting a concealed carry license in the state is non-existent. Paterson is also one of the more dangerous cities in New Jersey. Though the city saw a 50% reduction in homicides between 2017 and 2018, the city has already topped last year’s murder total, and we still have almost three months left in the year. Delivering to a bad neighborhood late at night isn’t seen as a “good cause” to carry, unfortunately, which means if Petra Rhoden had even tried to get a concealed carry license, she would have been out of luck.

It’s not unusual to see stories of delivery drivers defending themselves from armed robbers in places where getting a concealed carry license is possible. A delivery driver in Texas shot and killed a would-be robber just a few months ago, for instance. It also looks like Door Dash doesn’t have a written policy barring drivers from lawfully carrying while on the job, which is a very good thing. Unfortunately, that policy doesn’t matter in states that don’t recognize your right to bear arms, like New Jersey.

No arrests have been made in the murder of Petra Rhoden, and based on the clearance rates for crimes in Paterson, we may never know who killed the 43-year old who was just trying to earn a living and make it home safe and sound. Instead, a community is mourning her death at the hands of someone who wasn’t impacted at all by the state’s restrictive gun control regime. It was Petra, not the perp, who paid the ultimate price thanks to the laws of New Jersey and a cold-blooded killer.

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