The maskless Uber passenger who berated her driver and coughed on him has been booked and charged in connection to the alleged assault that went viral.
According to Dailymail, Arna Kimiai, 24, was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on Sunday on an arrest warrant for robbery, assault and battery, conspiracy, and violation of health and safety code after the altercation with driver Subhakar Khadka.
She was ultimately charged with felony attempted robbery and assault on a hired transportation driver, along with misdemeanor battery on a transportation driver and violation of COVID-19 health order.
Kimiai had expressed interest in turning herself in just hours after fellow passenger 24-year-old Malaysia King was apprehended in Las Vegas in connection to the wild altercation.
Robbery and conspiracy charges against Kimiai were ultimately dropped, prosecutors told CBS SF.
Local outlets report that Kimiai has since posted bail and has been released, pending her upcoming court date.
Kimlai first received national attention after the viral video showed her cough on Khadka while transporting her and two friends through San Francisco’s Bayview District last Saturday.
The three women can be seen sitting in the back seat of Khadka’s car – with Kimiai not wearing a mask.
When Khadka asked her to cover her face, she coughed in his direction and the three friends could be heard saying: ‘F*** the masks.’
As the women continued to shout at Khadka, Kimiai then tried to grab his cellphone before ripping off his face mask.
Khadka told CBS: ‘I never said anything bad to them, I never cursed, I was not raised that way. I don’t hit people, I am not raised that way, so they were not getting out of my car.’
He said the altercation began when he asked the woman to put on her face mask.
When she refused, he said he pulled into a gas station so she could buy one. That’s when he says the insults and racial slurs began.
Khadka – who moved to the US from Nepal eight years ago to support his family – added: ‘You guys are animals to treat other human beings like this.
‘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.
‘If I was another complexion, I would have not gotten that treatment from them. 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.’
He told the women: ‘Since you were born and raised here in the United States, don’t think the other person is less human.’
Uber said in a statement: ‘The behavior seen in the video is appalling. The rider no longer has access to Uber.’
They have given Khadka $120 in cleaning funds.
Kimiai later defended herself in an Instagram video and threatened to sue Uber because Khadka kicked her out of his car.
Dressed only in her underwear, Kimiai claimed the driver forced her to get out of his vehicle on a freeway and refused to wait for another Uber to arrive, which she argued was unsafe because it was ‘in the hood’.
Kimiai suggested the driver was ‘lucky as hell’ she didn’t beat him up.
‘He lucky as hell I ain’t have nothing on me… Cause if we would’ve played with me, bruh, it would’ve been a whole different story,’ she said.
’75 percent of people I know would have smacked the s**t out of him.
‘All I did take his mask off and cough a little bit but I don’t even have corona.’
She stopped short of apologizing, saying instead: ‘I ain’t gonna lie, that was disrespectful as f**k. I was dead a** wrong for that.
BTLBlogger: Augustine Emmanuel
