A Detroit father is furious after he said an Uber driver assaulted him in front of his young son and called him the n-word, then nearly crashed the vehicle in which they were traveling.
“You violated me, man, in front of my son, not once but twice – and you almost got us killed,” Antone Harris told Fox2Detroit of the Uber driver.
According to the news station, Harris, who is a single father, called an Uber driver to take him to dialysis treatment. His 10-year-old son, Antone Jr., was with him.
While on their way to the center, Harris asked the driver if they could stop at a gas station, so he could pick up something to eat while he was sitting for his treatment.
According to Harris, the driver said that it was fine, but things quickly escalated from there.
“Before I can come out, my son came in and said he was cussing like tell your ‘mf-ing father to come on.’ So I got in the car like ‘Hey man you don’t have to be cussing, I didn’t take that long,'” Harris explained.
The driver allegedly further escalated the situation by demanding that the father and son get out of his van, which Harris refused as the ride was already paid for, and he could miss his treatment.
That was when the driver allegedly decided to start hurling racial slurs.
“He called me the n-word dog, I guess he said that in order to taunt me to do something to him,” Harris said. “So I can get into trouble, or so I would get out of the car.”
Harris claimed the driver got out of the van and opened up Harris’ door, lunging at him as if he would punch him and then started kicking him, according to the news station.
Harris stood up in the van to avoid the confrontation, but when he did, the driver ran back around to get into the car and then started speeding down the road.
Harris claimed that the driver ran red lights, drove in bike lanes, and nearly crashed into another car at the intersection of Livernois and Davison.
Police eventually caught up with them at that intersection, where they arrested the driver.
Athough Harris is angry, he is glad that he was able to keep calm in the situation, claiming that he would have been given “the book” had he retaliated.
“If I would’ve jumped on that man, I would have been in some serious trouble man,” Harris said. “They would’ve given me the book. My son would have been displaced, I would have been trying to find a way to get bond money and all types of miscellaneous stuff.”
