An angry female passenger assaulted, coughed on and tried to steal the cellphone of an Uber driver in San Francisco - all because the driver asked her to wear a face mask.
The woman was with two other women when Subhakar Khadka picked them up Sunday in the city's Bayview District.
A video shows the three women in the back seat berating Khadka, cursing at him while the driver stopped on the shoulder of a highway.
At one point, the woman without a face mask coughs on the driver, reaches for his cellphone from the center dash area and rips off his mask.
She then lost her temper and yelled "f*** the mask!" and attacked him.
Police said they were investigating.
"The suspects exited the car and the third passenger reached into an open window and sprayed what is believed to be pepper spray into the vehicle and toward the driver," Insider quoted the police as saying in a tweet.
"I never said anything bad to them, I never cursed, I was not raised that way," The Independent quoted Khadka as saying in an interview with KPIX 5.
Khadka, who is south Asian, said he believed the attack was racially motivated.
A GoFundMe raised money for Khadka and he received more than $30,000 in donations.
Meanwhile, Lyft too has banned the passenger seen in the video attacking Khadka.
"Driving in a pandemic is not easy. Please wear a mask, respect one another and be a good person," Lyft said in a tweeted statement, as per USA Today.
