SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – An Uber driver in San Francisco was assaulted and coughed by a woman on horseback with two other women after she refused their service because they were not wearing masks, in an attack that the driver caught on video .
San Francisco police also said that one of the women sprayed what is believed to be pepper spray into the vehicle and into the driver after she left the vehicle. The incident happened Sunday at about 12:45 a.m. on San Bruno Ave. and Silver Ave.
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The video was filmed on Sunday by a 32-year-old driver, identified as Subhakar Khadka. In it, three women are seen in the back seat, repressing the driver using blasphemy. At one point, the woman who coughed at the driver also took her mobile phone from the central area and tore off the mask she was wearing.
Warning: disturbing video, explicit language (Source: Subhakar Khadka)
The driver said he stopped to tell the women to wear masks and the driver is heard telling the women to get out of his car. The video begins with a woman telling the driver, “F – the masks!” and then she coughed at him repeatedly.
Khadka says he believes he was harassed and ridiculed by unruly passengers because he is an immigrant from South Asia.
“I didn’t say anything bad to them, I never swore, I wasn’t raised like that. I don’t hit people, I’m not raised like that, so they didn’t get out of my car, “Khadka said.
Khadka said his nightmare began on Sunday afternoon. He took the three women to Bayview on San Bruno Boulevard. When he noticed that a woman was not wearing a mask, he said he asked her to wear one. He drove to a nearby gas station so she could get to one. But by then, he says racial insults and provocations had already begun.
“You boys are animals who treat other human beings in this way,” he told KPIX.
And that wasn’t the worst. He says that after they finally got out of the car, he says that the woman with the red pepper sprayed him.
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“He threw pepper inside my car, from the passenger window which was a little open, this was the only window open in my car,” he said.
Khadka says he had to get out of the car because it became difficult to breathe.
He says he came to the US eight years ago and is working hard to support his family in Nepal. He says he was targeted because of his race.
“If I had a different complexion, I wouldn’t have received that treatment from them,” he said. “The moment I opened my mouth to talk, they realized I was one of them, so it’s easy for them to intimidate me.”
His message to women is, “Since you were born and raised here in the United States, you don’t think the other person is less human.”
The driver said that Uber gave him $ 120 in total cleaning funds after several requests, which is still not enough.
Uber confirmed the incident and in an email to KPIX 5 said: “The behavior seen in the video is awful. The pilot no longer has access to Uber. ”
San Francisco police said the driver managed to retrieve his phone from the woman, and the three women fled after the attack.
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Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call the SFPD advice line at 1-415-575-4444 or send a tip to TIP411 and start texting with SFPD.