SAN FRANCISCO—On Wednesday, March 17, one of the women caught on video attacking and harassing an Uber driver was charged. Arna Kimiai has been charged with attempted robbery, assault on a hired transportation driver, misdemeanor battery on a transportation driver and violation of a COVID-19 health order. Kimiai surrendered to police on March 14 at 7 p.m.
The incident took place on March 7, when Uber driver, 32-year-old Subhakar Khadka, picked up Kimiai and her two friends. Khadka noticed that Kimiai did not have a mask and asked her to put a mask on, but she refused and began to berate the driver along with her friend, 24-year-old Malaysia King.
The video shows Kimiai shout, “F*** the mask,” then repeatedly cough on Khadka before she lunges and grabs his phone. When Khadka grabs his phone back she rips his mask off his face and continues to berate him along with King. According to a report by KPIX 5, after the women eventually left the vehicle, King shot pepper spray into the vehicle. “She pepper-sprayed inside my car, from the passenger window that was open a little bit, that was the only window open in my car,” Khadka said to KPIX. In a video posted to her Instagram, Kimai says, “he’s lucky as hell I didn’t have anything on me.”
Khadka believes the women lashed out at him because of his race, and yelled several racial slurs at him. “If I was another complexion, I would have not gotten that treatment from them,” he said to KPIX 5. “The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized I’m among one of them, so it’s easy for them to intimidate me.”
Kimiai is currently out on bail and King was in custody in Las Vegas for attempting to use a fake I.D. to withdraw money from a bank account and will be transported to San Francisco to face charges.
