He looked at the woman in the back with a smirk on his face. He didn’t care whether she would like what he had to say. “But I need to get home,” the woman said, sobbing.
“Sorry, but I can’t drive you home,” he responded. But when he woke up the next morning, his name would be all over social media.
Tro’Juan Henderson worked for the National Domestic Violence Hotline in Austin before becoming a Lyft driver.
He thought he had seen it all, but he was wrong. The three women he met that night would put his patience to the test.
One night, three drunk women ordered a Lyft, and Tro’Juan arrived to pick them up. They were so intoxicated that they could barely walk.
One of the three friends began to give him instructions while he stood there, shocked to the core. Then, she handed him a set of keys. “No, I can’t do it,” Tro’Juan politely explained.
Tro’Juan took a step back and tried to bargain with the women, offering them a discount on the ride. But they weren’t happy with a compromise or a discount.
They wanted to send their friend home, who was in no state to walk or even talk. Tro’Juan had seen this kind of behavior many times, and it always upset him.
What bothered him the most was that the women gave him the keys to their friend’s apartment. They trusted a complete stranger with their friend’s life.
Tro’Juan politely asked to help their friend out of the car. Then, he canceled the trip and drove off. But why would he refuse to drive the drunk woman home?
The next morning, Tro’Juan posted his reasons in a video on Twitter. He explained how the women expected him to drive their friend home and take her into her apartment.
Tro’Juan could see how a person with less than pure intentions could easily take advantage of this kind of situation. He wanted them to know that it wasn’t okay. They shouldn’t trust a stranger with their friend.
Tro’Juan asked the other two women to drive home with their friend and even offered them a discount. But they didn’t agree.
He explained once again his reasoning behind refusing to drive their friend home. It was dangerous for intoxicated women to be alone in a taxi. But what did other people think?
Tro’Juan’s video had gone viral. In his video, he made it clear that he wasn’t taking any chances. ”…as a friend, that puts your friend in a possibility of great danger,” he said.
“At first, I wondered if I was wrong for not giving her a ride, but I know where my heart was.”
He couldn’t help but picture how the woman might feel if she found out that a complete stranger had taken her home and entered her apartment.
“I was like yo, if I carry her into her apartment, unlock her door, what if she wakes up and now to her, there’s this strange, 6’2″ black man carrying her into her house and she doesn’t know who I am?” he said.
“And who knows? She could have suffered a traumatic experience in the past that I knew nothing about,” Tro’Juan continued.
He always knew that rape was wrong, but it was after he attended an NDVH workshop that he realized how common and serious it was.
“I remember going to a workshop and hearing a guy who said, ‘Aye man, boys will be boys,” he continued.
“I remember going to a workshop and hearing a guy who said, ‘Aye man, boys will be boys.’”
“It was a shock. I knew that was wrong. From that point on, I knew I had to be more vocal. Men have to hold themselves more accountable,” Tro’Juan told Elite Daily.
These words were enough to motivate him to become an advocate for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
In his Twitter video, Tro’Juan explained that he didn’t want to encourage the practice of women not taking better precautions with their friends.
“I do not want to crown myself. I just know a lot of guys would have looked at her and tried to take an opportunity, and I want women to be aware,” he wrote.
This was the second time that he tried to tell women not to leave their drunk friends alone in a car.
“The first time, I didn’t think it would be a reoccurring thing. They ended up agreeing to go together, and I took them both,” he recalls.
So, when the women gave him access to their friend’s apartment, he knew he had to do something.
“Men and women need to take care of each other.” he wrote on Twitter.
