A rideshare driver in Virginia says that they had been assaulted by passengers that were picked up in Alexandria, VIRGINIA. After the riders started asking about the use of the drivers pronouns they/them. Yasmani Gurri said, “The passenger people ask me my name, and my country. I respond.” speaking about the interaction that they had with the three men that got into their SUV last Saturday night right before midnight. Gurri says that the men were bearded and all seemed to be intoxicated.
Gurri mentions that they started to interrogate them about his pronoun use they/them that was clearly marked on their Lyft profile account. After they explained to the passengers they use these terms because they don’t identify with either male or female genders, Gurri then said that they started to refer to them as a woman and the man that was seated right behind their driver seat hit them with a beer bottle on top of the head.
According to Gurri, he says, “I think that’s a homophobic reaction.”
Gurri then said that they had asked the passengers to stop, but then the same man hit them a second time, but in the ribs, all while they were driving. According to the driver, Gurri, they say they only were a minute away from their destination so they just proceeded to drop off these men at their hotel on the 4800 Block of Leesburg Pike in Alexandria, Virginia.
Gurri says in his native language, Spanish to WUSA9, “They put my life in danger. Thank God nothing happened, but there could have been traffic, I could have crashed and I would not be telling this story.”
Gurri says they asked the men to stop, but that the same man hit them a second time in the ribs while they were driving. The driver says they were only a minute away from their final destination so they proceeded to drop the men off at a hotel on the 4800 block of Leesburg Pike in Alexandria, Virginia.
“They put my life in danger. Thank God nothing happened, but there could have been traffic, I could have crashed and I would not be telling this story,” said Gurri in his native Spanish to WUSA9
While they attempted to call police to report the incident, Gurri claims a fourth man had come forwards towards the SUV and threw a $100 bill in their car, telling them to not report the incident
When they were cleaning their SUV, Gurri found the beer bottle that the man had used to hit him over the top of the head, and ribs. They have made a police report with the Alexandria City police and the bottle is saved in possession.
“I want them to be criminally charged,” Gurri, who has completed over 1,500 car rides and even has a five-star rating on Lyft. Currently, they decided to just quit driving for the rideshare app due to growing safety concerns.
Currently, Gurri’s currently working on getting Lyft to disclose the passengers name that is associated with the Lyft account so that any suspects can be identified. Unfortunately, since the men were staying at
Gurri is currently working to get Lyft to disclose the name associated with the account so that the suspects can be identified. They are concerned that because the men were staying at the Alexandria hotel, that they might be out of town and the riders most likely not face consequences for this alleged attack.
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