Watch Uber Driver Pepper Spray Passenger Who Repeatedly Hit Him
An Uber driver was forced to pepper spray a passenger who repeatedly beat him in a startling attack caught on dashboard camera.
Driver Edward Caban shared video to YouTube showing Friday night's alleged attack inside his car in Newport Beach, California.
Caban wrote that the passenger was "incredibly intoxicated" when he picked him up. The man told him to drive to Costa Mesa but apparently didn't know exactly where he was going, Caban said.
Read: NYPD Officer Stripped of His Gun After Verbally Assaulting Uber Driver
As Caban drove him, the man appeared to slip in and out of consciousness. In the footage, the man can be seen falling over in the back seat as Caban takes a turn.
Caban eventually tells the man that the ride is over.
"You're too drunk to give me directions man, I'm kicking you out," he tells him.
"Are you serious?" the man asks before refusing to leave.
Caban says he will call the police if the man does not get out. The man opens the door as if to leave and then, as he shouts expletives, the man begins slapping Caban's face from the seat behind, the footage shows.
"You f***ing b****!" he tells the driver as he hits him.
"I just had fists flying at my face," Caban said as he recounted the ordeal to CBS2.
Caban then pulls out a can of Mace and sprays it in the man's face as he stumbles from the car.
Minutes after the attack, Costa Mesa police responded to find the passenger, 32-year-old Benjamin Golden, still vomiting from the Mace, NBC LA reported.
Golden, a senior associate brand manager for marketing for Taco Bell, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor public intoxication and misdemeanor assault, police said.
Read: Terrified Courtney Love Gets Trapped in Uber Car, Calls It 'Scariest Day of My Life'
He was released from custody with a written promise to appear in court, authorities said. The incident is still under review and police plan to submit charges to the Orange County district attorney's office this week, the LA Times reported.
Golden has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Uber has banned the rider from using its service.
Caban, who has been working for Uber since July, said the company offered to reimburse him for cleaning the pepper spray from his car, but he says the incident has put him off the job.
"I don’t feel safe driving for Uber anymore," he said.
Watch Below: NYPD Detective Caught Screaming and Yelling at Uber Driver
