(San Francisco, GNB): A Nepali Uber driver captured footage of three women assaulting him after he denied them a ride for not wearing masks.
Three women can be seen coughing at him, Uber driver Subhakar Khadka shared a video. They also yelled using “F’ words at him.
In this video, Khadka who was in the driving seat had his mask ripped off his face. Suddenly, it is seen that one of the passenger women grabbed his phone.
The video was shot on Sunday by Subhakar Khadka and shared in social media.
Betty Yu, KPIX5 reporter said in a tweet- “When he noticed one of the passengers was not wearing a mask, he asked her politely to wear one. He drove them to a nearby gas station to purchase one. By then, he says the women already started yelling racial slurs, taunted him, and threatened to shoot him”.
Subhakar Khadka, who is from Nepal, told the KPIX5 reporter Yu that he believed the attack was racially motivated.
In an interview with KPIX5, Khadka said “If I was another complexion, I would have not gotten that treatment from them … The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized I’m not among one of them, so it’s easy for them to intimidate me.”
There’s been a rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans since the pandemic started. Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center that’s been tracking cases like these said from March to December of last year they received over 2,808 firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate crimes.
One of the women pepper-sprayed him “like a roach” on her way out of the car, Khadka said to Yu during the interview.
“The behavior seen in the video is appalling. The rider no longer has access to Uber,” Uber said to the media.
Khadka 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.
Uber gave him $120 dollars in total cleaning funds after multiple requests, which is still not sufficient, Khadka said to the media.
This isn’t the only incident of ride-share drivers being attacked for trying to enforce mask use.
Last month, the Chicago Tribune reported that a Lyft driver was also assaulted after asking a passenger to wear a mask. The driver told the passenger to leave the car after they refused to put on a mask. They then spat on the driver.
Watch Interview with Subhakar Khadka:
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