In a shocking incident in the US, an Uber driver was coughed on, pepper-sprayed and assaulted by passengers who ripped off his mask after he says he asked them to wear a face covering.
According to a Daily Mail report, Subhakar Khadka, 32, says he was racially abused by the three women after picking them up in the Bayview area of San Francisco on Sunday.
The footage filmed on Khadka’s car camera showed one of the women coughing in his direction before leaning forward to grab his phone and then rip off his mask.
Khadka, from Nepal, said the trouble started when he pulled over because one of the women refused to wear a mask. He drove to a gas station so she could purchase a face covering, but the abuse began even before they arrived, he told the station.
In his video posted to Twitter, one woman leans toward him from the back seat and coughs on him. She also grabs his cellphone from his hands and tears off his mask while her companions loudly harass him.
After they stepped out of the car, one of the passengers “reached into an open window and sprayed what is believed to be pepper spray into the vehicle and towards the driver,” San Francisco police spokesperson Adam Lobsinger said in an email.
These guys are animals to treat another human being like this,” Khadka told the TV station.
Police asked for the public’s help in identifying the passengers.
Hate crimes against Asians in the United States have increased markedly during the pandemic, and many are occurring in the Bay Area.
