An Uber passenger who went viral in a recent video where she was seen assaulting her driver and coughing on him earlier this week, has accepted her charges and is reportedly planning to turn herself in at a police station.
24-year-old Arnia Kimiai along with two other women –Malaysia King and one unidentified woman –were seen not complying with Uber driver Subhakar Khadka’s request to wear a face mask, according to the video recorded by his dash camera. Arnia, who sat right behind Subhakar, got worked up and indulged in a heated argument with the driver. She even coughed at him, ripped off his face mask and tried to snatch away his phone. The video attracted some severe criticism from netizens.
⚠️ : ⚠️ Uber driver Subhakar told me he picked up 3 women in the Bayview yesterday & after asking one to wear a mask was subject to slurs, taunting & one grabbing his phone. He’s taking a few days off.
SFPD is investigating. pic.twitter.com/o99pOooWsw
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) March 9, 2021
Subhakar had denied the ride to the three customers after they failed to follow the coronavirus prevention rules on Sunday, March 7, 2021 in San Francisco. As the ladies left his car after much-heated argument, King sprayed, what the Police believes to be pepper spray, inside Subhakar’s car. According to a report by DailyMail, the Las Vegas Police Department said that King was taken into custody on charges of assault with a caustic chemical, assault and battery, conspiracy and violation of health and safety code on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Arnia’s lawyer has said that she will turn herself in to the San Francisco Police Department to face similar charges, mentions the DailyMail report.The development came after Arnia had threatened to sue Uber who had blacklisted her from their services, and went on to say that she would have smacked the sh** out of the driver, but all she did was cough and take off his mask. However, in the live video, she also agreed that it was disrespectful of her to have done what she did.
Since then, Subhakar has started a GoFundMe page where the Nepalese man says that the money would go to his wife and eight-year-old daughter, who are back in Nepal. Speaking to ABC7 News anchor Dion Lim, Subhakar said that he kept his cool during the entire disturbing event because that is his culture where people respect, listen and that is all he could do at that time.