[ad_1]
Two arrests were made after scenes of a viral video that circulated showed passengers deliberately mocking and coughing on an Uber driver.
In the dashcam video, the driver, who had a hand on his head, looked exasperated. A woman in the passenger seat cursed at a mask, then coughed at the driver, all while using racist slurs. Another passenger joined her, lowering her mask and laughing. “And I had corona,” she says.
The driver refused to continue the journey and the situation worsened. The passenger who had initially coughed on the driver grabbed his phone and tore off his mask, breaking the strap. The women continued to scream profanity.
The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement last Thursday that the driver, identified by KGO-TV as Subhakar Khadka, picked up three passengers in the early afternoon of March 7, but when he saw the one of the women was not wearing a mask, he told them he would not continue unless they were all wearing masks.
In a video posted to Instagram and since deleted, a passenger said the driver was trying to get them out of the car in the middle of the freeway.
Soon, “an altercation ensued,” police said.
A woman grabbed the driver’s cell phone, which Mr. Khadka eventually retrieved, and another passenger sprayed “what is believed to be pepper spray” into the car through an open window after exiting the vehicle, according to the report. the police.
Mr. Khadka, an Uber driver from Nepal who came to the United States eight years ago, said in an interview with KPIX that he never said anything “bad” to the women and that they refused to leave. his car. Mr Khadka said he believed he had been singled out for their anger because he was South Asian. “If I had a different skin tone, I wouldn’t have received this treatment from them,” he said. “The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized that I was not one of them. It’s easy for them to intimidate me.
One of the passengers was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Police Department said. The passenger, Malaysia King, 24, was taken into custody on charges of assault with a caustic chemical, assault and battery, conspiracy and violation of a health and safety code, police said.
A second passenger, Arna Kimiai, 24, surrendered on Sunday, the San Francisco Police Department said. Ms. Kimiai was charged with robbery, assault and battery, conspiracy and violating a health and safety code.
“The behavior captured on video in this incident showed a callous disregard for the safety and well-being of an essential service worker amid a deadly pandemic,” said Lt. Tracy McCray, who heads the service. robbery of the San Francisco Police Department.
[ad_2]
Source link