- Woman sprayed pepper-spray on driver’s face
- Key accused woman arrested
Special Desk
Two women allegedly harassed a cab driver in California when he asked them to wear a mask while the ride was going on.
Subhakar Khadka had immigrated to California seven years ago leaving his family in Nepal. He worked as a cab driver to earn for his family.
But a recent ride turned harrowing for him as he asked the women passengers to wear mask under the covid protocol.
One of the woman passenger coughed at the driver, and also tried to snatch away his cell phone while the other one used abusive language and all this got recorded on the dashcam—camera on the car dashboard, which went viral.
The key accused women has been arrested. Malaysia King, 24, was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with assault with a caustic chemical, assault and battery, conspiracy and violation of health and safety code, according to San Francisco Police Department.
Another suspect, Arna Kimiai’s lawyer told police that she intended to surrender to the police department.
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San Francisco police have identified two of the three women in the car as Arna Kimiai, 24, and Malaysia King, 24.
In the video, the woman identified as Kimiai takes her face mask off, yanks Khadka’s face mask off his face, coughs in his direction and attempts to take away his cell phone.
Meanwhile, the woman identified as King, seen with her mask below her face, announces that she has the coronavirus. All this is seen in the video.
Police officers from the Las Vegas Police Department apprehended King for assault with a caustic chemical, assault and battery, conspiracy and violation of health and safety code, according to a statement from the San Francisco police department and said the charges against Kimiai would be made public when she is taken into custody or turns herself in.
Khadka says he picked up the three women in San Francisco at around 12:45 pm and noticed that one of the passengers was not wearing a mask, so he stopped the ride a few minutes later, according to Officer Robert Rueca of the SFPD.
Khadka told he stopped the car to allow the maskless passenger to enter a gas station and buy a mask, which she did.
But Khadka said that by that point he had tired of the passengers’ taunting behavior. When the woman returned to the car from the gas station, he told the passengers he was ending the ride — that he was going home.
That announcement, he said, made the passengers angrier. “F*** the mask,” a woman says.
Khadka said he shared the video to help police identify the suspects.