A viral video captured the intense moment a man in a tank top attacked an Uber driver in Fresno, shouting demands to the driver as the camera rolled.
Thomas Rodriguez, the driver caught in the chaos, recalls it began with a passenger who had no business in his car.
The ride was already scheduled for dancers from Splash nightclub — an LGBTQ establishment — prompting the man to lose his cool. “This guy just decided to come with my car and sit in my car and start demanding me to drive him,” Rodriguez told KRON4.
On March 22, a video captured the passenger climbing into the vehicle and requesting a ride home.
Rodriguez explained the ride was already scheduled for dancers from Splash nightclub — an LGBTQ establishment — which made the man lose his cool, refuse to leave, and yell obscenities.
The situation spiraled out of control when, moments later, one of the dancers entered the vehicle. The situation spiraled out of control when, moments later, one of the dancers entered the vehicle.
Rodriguez says the uninvited man unleashed a barrage of insults at both him and the dancer, sparking a physical altercation that played out on camera.
“When he did that, I at first I was like, ‘Wow. Well, this is actually happening,’” Rodriguez continued.
The passenger is seen throwing the first punch before being struck multiple times by the dancer until club security finally intervenes to remove the passenger.
“That’s just one out of more than 11,000 people that I’ve driven,” he told the outlet.
However, Rodriguez said he’s not letting one bad experience stop him from doing his job.
“There is that danger, but we all have to find a way around it.” He noted that safety steps like using dash cameras and checking rides with PIN numbers are important to help prevent situations like this.
