CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A Charlotte Uber driver said he was attacked early Sunday morning by a passenger who apparently thought the driver was a Muslim.
"He asked me if I was a Muslim. I said I was not a Muslim," said the victim, Samson Woldemichael. "I was driving and he hit me while I was driving."
Woldemichael said it started after he went to Park Road to pick up a passenger from a bar. He said the man gave him his home address, which was about 10 to 15 minutes away.
According to Woldemichael, the drive started out peacefully. But he said when he arrived at the drop off location, the passenger became belligerent.
"He said he's gonna shoot me right in the face. He's gonna strangle me," Woldemichael told WBTV. "I asked him why. He was calling me too many bad word names... insulting me. He told me I was a Muslim."
Woldemichael said he came to the U.S. eight years ago from Ethiopia, a country in the horn of Africa - and that he's a Christian. He doesn't know why the passenger assumed he is a Muslim, or threatened to shoot him.
"I told him in the first place I was not a Muslim. It's not right to generalize people and do that," he said.