Two arrests were made after scenes of a viral video that circulated showed passengers deliberately teasing and coughing at an Uber driver.
In the camera video, the driver, who had his hand on his head, looked exasperated. A woman in the passenger seat swore about a mask and then coughed at the driver, using racial slanders. Another passenger joined him, lowering his mask and laughing. “And I have a corona,” she said.
The driver refused to continue the journey and the situation worsened. The passenger who initially coughed over the driver grabbed his phone and tore off his mask, breaking the strap. The women continued to shout 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 that one of the women was not wearing a mask, he told them that he would not continue unless everyone wore masks.
In a video posted on Instagram and since then removed, a passenger said the driver was trying to get them out of the car in the middle of the highway.
Soon, “an altercation ensued,” said the police.
A woman grabbed the driver’s cell phone, which Khadka eventually recovered, and another passenger threw “what is believed to be pepper spray” in the car through an open window after they got out of the vehicle, according to police.
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 women and that they refused to leave their car. Khadka said he believed he was chosen for his ire because he is from South Asia. “If I had been from another skin, I would not have received this treatment from them,” he said. “The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized that I am not one of them. It’s easy for them to intimidate me. “
One of the passengers was arrested in Las Vegas on Thursday, the Las Vegas Police Department said. The passenger, Malaysia King, 24, was arrested on a warrant for 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, gave herself up on Sunday, the San Francisco Police Department announced. Ms. Kimiai was charged on charges of theft, assault and battery, conspiracy and violation of a health and safety code.
“The behavior captured on video in this incident showed a cruel disregard for the safety and well-being of an essential service worker in the midst of a deadly pandemic,” said Lt. Tracy McCray, who heads the São Paulo Police Department’s mugging class. Francisco.