Ethiopian Uber Driver Attacked by Passenger Who Mistook Him for a Muslim

“He’s gonna strangle me”, said Uber driver Samson Woldemichael who was attacked for “being Muslim”.

“I told him in the first place I was not a Muslim”.

He says the passenger asked him if he was Muslim, and he said no.

“I was driving and he hit me”.

Woldemichael says he picked up his assailant, a white man in his 30s, a little before 2 a.m. Sunday outside an Irish pub in Charlotte.

According to Woldemichael, the drive started out peacefully but soon the passenger got agitated and started hitting him. The passenger asked Samson to drive him home, a distance of just 10-15 minutes. He was calling me too many bad word names… insulting me. He told WBTV he was unsure why the belligerent passenger assumed he was Muslim.

Woldemichael came to the USA from Ethiopia about eight years ago.

Woldemichael says that even after he told the man he wasn’t a Muslim, the man continued to threaten him.

It’s important, he said, for Americans to realize that people like him are “Americans in their hearts, and believe in America in their hearts”.

The passenger finally got out of the vehicle and threatened to kill Woldemichael one last time before fleeing the scene.

“I started driving because I didn’t feel safe anymore to park there”, he said.

Halfway around the block, the passenger launched a violent attack and ‘hit me so hard on the forehead with his bare hand’. Fortunately, I didn’t lose consciousness.

Woldemichael said he wished a few Americans weren’t so afraid of immigrants like himself.

That’s when the Uber driver stopped the auto and began honking his horn to draw attention.

“He was saying he would shoot me”.

Wolde-Michael said he chose to start driving.

Charlotte-Meckleburg Police Department told WBTV on Tuesday that police were investigating the case and that no arrests had been made so far.

People who hire Uber drivers have to pay up front with their credit cards, and give their information. “They love the country and they want to protect the system here”. “They love the system”.

Wolde-Michael hopes other people who aren’t from America but who believe in it don’t fall victim to the same hatred.