Uber driver says passenger called him ISIS, hit him; police probing as possible hate crime



SEATTLE -- Seattle police are investigating a possible hate crime after an Uber driver says he was attacked -- and called a terrorist -- by a passenger.

In the racist rant caught on the driver's dash-cam, you can hear the rider call the driver an "ISIS (expletive)', among another insults. He also tells him, "I'm going to tell everyone you said ISIS is going to win the war."

"I have never seen anything like that. I have never," said the driver, who asked to remain anonymous for this interview.

"ISIS is going to win the war? Which I don't know what he was talking about when (we) never had any discussion about that," the victim added.

The driver says he picked up three passengers in southwest Seattle Wednesday  and that one of them was rowdy from the start. The driver says he threatened to kick the trio out.

"Started touching me on my thigh. He'd already touched me three times, telling me I'm sorry, I'm sorry three times," the driver continued. "I had to pull in the middle of the turning lane so that he can move from the front seat and go to the backseat."

But in the back seat, as the trip was coming to an end at 1st Ave and Seneca, is when the taunting took a malicious turn.

"He hit right here on the head. Hard!" The Uner driver explained. "It's terrible. He was calling me an ass**** and he was hitting me with ISIS because of my accent. I don't know if (he) thought probably I am a terrorist or something in the way he threatened me."

Officers booked the 36-year-old suspect into the King County Jail for assault. Detectives tell us they are reviewing the case as a possible hate crime.