SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – An Uber driver in San Francisco was assaulted and coughed by a woman driving with two other women after refusing their service because he was not wearing masks, in an attack that killed the driver captured on video.
San Francisco police also said one of the women allegedly sprayed pepper spray into the vehicle and at the driver after they left the vehicle. The incident occurred Sunday around 12:45 p.m. in San Bruno Ave. and Silver Ave took place.
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The video was shot by the driver on Sunday, identified as 32-year-old Subhakar Khadka. It shows three women in the back seat reprimanding the driver for using swear words. At one point, the woman who was coughing the driver also grabbed his cell phone from the middle dash area and ripped off the face mask he was wearing.
Warning: disturbing video, explicit language (Source: Subhakar Khadka)
The driver said he pulled over to tell the women to wear face masks, and the driver is heard telling the women to get out. The video begins with one woman saying to the driver, “F – the masks!” and then repeatedly coughing at him.
Khadka says he believes he was harassed and mocked by the rioting passengers because he is an immigrant from South Asia.
‘I never said anything bad to them, I never swore, I was not raised that way. “I do not hit people, I was not raised that way, and that is why they do not get out of my car,” Khadka said.
Khadka said his nightmare began Sunday afternoon. He picked up the three women in Bayview in San Bruno Avenue. When he saw that one woman was not wearing a mask, he asked her to put on one. He drove to a nearby gas station so she could drive one. But by that time he had said that the racial barriers, and the mockery had already begun.
“You are animals to treat other people that way,” he told KPIX 5.
And it was not the worst. He says after they finally got out of the car, he says the woman in red pepper sprayed him.
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“She sprayed pepper inside my car, from the passenger window that was open, it was the only window in my car,” he said.
Khadka says he had to get out of his car because it became difficult to breathe.
He says he came to the US eight years ago and works hard to support his family in Nepal. He says he was targeted because of his race.
“If I were still a complexion, I would not have gotten the treatment from them,” he said. “The moment I open my mouth to speak, they realize I’m one of them, so it’s easy for me to intimidate myself.”
His message to the women is, “Since you were born and bred here in the United States, do not think that the other person is less human.”
The driver said Uber gave him $ 120 dollars in total cleaning funds after several requests, which are still not enough.
Uber confirmed the incident and said in an email to KPIX 5: ‘The behavior seen in the video is appalling. The rider no longer has access to Uber. ”
San Francisco police said the driver was able to retrieve his wife’s phone and that the three women fled after the attack.
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Anyone with information about the incident was asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or send a Tip a tip to TIP411 and start the SMS with SFPD.