Metro Atlanta rideshare company will let you hire an armed driver

DUNWOODY, Ga. — A new rideshare company based in Dunwoody allows riders to hire an armed driver to get them to their destination.

The owner of Black Wolf, Kerry Kingbrown, told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan that the idea for the company came from taking a friend’s daughter to school six months ago.

After just one month on the market, Black Wolf has already been downloaded approximately 90,000 times.

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Kingbrown is a professional bodyguard who spent years working for celebrities and politicians.

He says at the end of last year, he had an idea to make security accessible for everyone.

“We have clients from the political realm to the everyday blue-collar worker,” he explained.

Channel 2 Action News has reported on countless shootings involving rideshares in the last year, including a woman who was “ambushed” and killed while in an Uber last month.

Kingbrown says he took note of all the violent incidents involving rideshare drivers and their customers, and wanted to make a change.

“Our drivers are military, law enforcement, those who have been in the private security world for over five years. That’s the minimum we require,” he said. “They can see a situation brewing before it happens.”

He says all of the drivers are trained in de-escalation techniques.

So far, Kingbrown says they have not had any incidents where a driver had to pull out a weapon.

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The demand was far greater than he anticipated.

“We’ve probably done over 180 rides and this is our first complete month,” he said. “Now that we’re here now, we’re expanding. My next stop is LA.”

Critics say this service just puts more guns on the streets. Kingbrown says these are guns in the hands of highly trained professionals.

“We want to take the pressure off of you, take the liability off of you as the rider,” he explained.

The average ride with Black Wolf costs similar to an Uber Black, so about 50% more than the typical rideshare ride.

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