The woman who was caught on camera ripping off her Uber driver's mask and coughing on him has been charged with two felonies and two misdemeanor offenses, the Independent reports.
Arna Kimiai, 24, who assaulted, verbally abused, and used racist language towards her driver, 32-year-old Subhakar Khandka, faces a felony charge of assault likely to inflict great bodily injury against a transit operator.
She also faces a felony charge for first-degree attempted robbery on a transit operator after footage showed her seemingly trying to grab Khadka’s phone from the dashboard of his car.
Below is footage from the unsettling incident:Additionally, Kimiai is facing charges of the following misdemeanors: battery on a transportation driver and violation of a local Covid-19 health ordinance.
If found guilty of the aforementioned charges, Kimiai could be facing up to 16 years in state prison and be required to pay a $3,000 fine.
Kimiai turned herself in "peacefully" to the authorities in San Francisco last weekend in relation to the incident on March 7, her lawyer said, per New York Daily News.
In a statement obtained by Newsweek, her attorney Seth Morris said: "Arna Kimiai turned herself in at the women's jail in San Francisco (jail #2) at approximately 7:00PM Sunday night.
"We coordinated her surrender with Sgt. Tony Santos of SFPD so it could be handled peacefully and expeditiously.
"Ms. Kimiai acted appropriately and responsibly when she found out she had a warrant for her arrest, coordinating her peaceful surrender through her legal counsel and the San Francisco Police Department. We have no further comment at this time."
Kimiai's aggressive behavior towards Khandka is believed to have been brought about simply because the driver pulled over to tell the 24-year-old and her two friends to wear their face masks.
The video of the incident has currently been viewed over 3.5 million times. It sees Kimiai shout "f**k the mask,", before aggressively coughing on Khandka and then quickly lunging forward to grab his phone while yelling: "What you gonna do?"
She then continues to abuse her driver in an expletive-laden rant, as he tells her: "You don’t touch my property. You didn’t buy it, I bought it, I worked hard for it."
It has also been reported that before leaving the vehicle, a pepper spray was used as part of the assault on the driver.
Speaking to KPIX5 about the ordeal, Khadka said: "I never said anything bad to them," and added: "I never cursed, I was not raised that way. I don’t hit people, I am not raised that way."
The driver, who is of South Asian descent, went on to say: "If I was another complexion, I would have not gotten that treatment from them."
Uber has since given Khadka $120 in compensation for the ordeal, but online philanthropists have collectively raised over $100,000 for the driver via a GoFundMe campaign.
