Uber Driver Pepper Sprayed on Upper East Side; Says Attack was Racially Motivated

An Uber driver was pepper sprayed by a young female passenger on the Upper East Side last Wednesday in what appears to have been a racially motivated attack, according to the driver.

The NY Post spoke to 45-year-old Shohel Mahmud, who said the attack was completely unprompted and the passenger, 23-year-old Jennifer Guilbeault, sprayed him because of his skin color.

“Her friend, she is yelling, ‘Jen, Jen, what the f— are you doing? What’s going on?” Mahmud told the outlet. “Her friend is asking, ‘Why did you do that?’ And she say, ‘He’s brown.’”

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Dash cam footage from inside the vehicle shows Guilbeault spraying Mahmud in the face from close range. She then climbs into the front seat as Mahmud gets out of the car. The woman with Guilbeault appears shocked and attempts to hold Guilbeault back.

Mahmud picked up the passengers on West 46th Street and had just taken them through the Central Park Traverse when the incident occurred around 11:30 p.m. near 65th and Lexington Avenue. Mahmud told ABC7NY that the burning from the pepper spray lasted two hours.

“I mean this is totally ridiculous,” Mahmud said. “I do nothing and she spray me. Pepper spray is illegal. She assault a driver for no reason. This is a hate crime.”

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Guilbeault was reportedly arrested on assault charges, but a police spokesperson told the Post that the incident is not being investigated as a hate crime. Guilbeault’s former employer, the Long Island-based PR company D. Pagan Communications, said, “We are aware of the actions of his former employee and we don’t condone this behavior,” in a post on LinkedIn.

Mahmud, who is married with three children, said the incident has taken a toll on him and upset his family. He told CBS that he’s considering building a barrier between the front and back seats to prevent future incidents.

A spokesperson from Uber said in a statement, “The rider’s actions shown in the video are deplorable. Violence is not tolerated, and the rider has been banned from the Uber platform. We will support police in their investigation however we can.”