A Washington state man was permanently banned from Lyft after he was filmed using racial slurs and threatening to urinate in a driver’s car after he was asked to put on a mask.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Issaquah, Washington, as reported by Newsweek. A video shared on Twitter showed a white man, only identified as Joe, cursing and using racial slurs toward driver David Kangogo.
The nighttime confrontation occurred after Kangogo noticed Joe, who was riding with a female companion, removed his face mask during the ride.
“So, I said, ‘Sir, could you kindly put your mask on,'” Kangogo recalled to Newsweek. “He ignored me the first time, I repeated [it] and told him he’s putting me at risk and all the other passengers I pick up after him.”
The man responded with a racial slur, which prompted Kangogo to end the ride.
“He said, ‘Oh, shut up n*****, you don’t know s***,” the 30-year-old said. “So, I just pulled over and got out of the car and told them I have canceled the ride, they can go ahead and get another driver.”
Kangogo started recording the interaction after he left the vehicle. In the video, Joe appeared to be intoxicated and repeatedly slurred his words.
“You’re a sand n—-r, that’s what you are,” Joe said. “You’re a f—ing sand n—-r. F–k you!”
Joe continued to spew obscenities after Kangogo told him to keep going and indicated he was filming.
“What’s a sand n—-r? Do you know what a sand n—-r is? ‘Cause I do,” Joe said before the woman appears in view and told him to stop because she was also filming. Joe continued to call Kangogo racial slurs and referred to him as a “f—ing piece of s–t.”
The woman walked around to the back of Kangogo’s car and told him she recorded his license plate.
“You should never drive Lyft again,” the woman said.
“No, you will never,” Joe said as he stumbled around the car.
“Are you happy now?” Kangogo asked the couple.
“No, we expected a Lyft ride home. That’s what we expected,” the woman said.
Kangogo reminded them the argument started over Joe’s refusal to wear a mask. The couple continued to protest, and Joe threatened to urinate inside the car.
“Do it,” Kangogo responded.
“Yea, no I’m not, you stupid f—ing n—-r,” Joe responded before he began to walk away. Joe and his companion continued to shout insults until Kangogo returned to his car.
“Thank you so much. Have a good night,” he said as he got in the car.
Kangogo reported the incident to Lyft and went home because he was too upset to continue driving.
“I couldn’t drive. I was literally shaking,” he told Newsweek.
The video went viral after another person shared it on Twitter, where it was viewed more than 388,000 times.
Lyft’s Twitter account responded with a tweet announcing Joe was banned from using the app.
“There is no place for discrimination of any sort in the Lyft community, and this behavior is unacceptable,” the tweet read. “We have permanently removed the rider from the Lyft community and are in touch with the driver to offer our support.”
