Food delivery man accused of yelling profanities, racial slurs at woman

A food delivery driver is accused of going on a racist rant after a woman asked him not to illegally park in her driveway in San Francisco. (Photo: KTVU)
A food delivery driver is accused of going on a racist rant after a woman asked him not to illegally park in her driveway in San Francisco. (Photo: KTVU)

A food delivery driver is accused of going on a racist rant against a woman in San Francisco, and now he could face a potential hate crime charge.

The incident, which occurred on Wednesday afternoon, began when Sophia Shih noticed a car illegally parked in her home's driveway in San Francisco's Sunset neighborhood. When she asked the owner of the vehicle, who was delivering food nearby for the online service Caviar, not to park in her space, the man — identified by police as 31-year-old Nathan Cole of Daly City — started to yell profanities and racial slurs at Shih.

Shih took a photo of Cole and called 911 while neighbors filmed the scene. Shih described the incident as "scary, very scary."

"It's disgusting," said a neighbor, identified by KTVU as King, who came to help Shih. "He was saying it to her, but I felt like he was saying it to me."

When San Francisco Police arrived on the scene, an officer pepper-sprayed Cole for not complying with orders. Cole was able to drive off, but police later located and arrested him. He now faces charges of resisting arrest and disobeying a police officer. He could potentially face hate crime charges as well.

"I'm afraid," Shih, who immigrated from Taiwan over 30 years ago and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, told the station. "This county is not safe anymore."

Caviar provided the following statement to Yahoo Lifestyle: “Caviar does not tolerate any racism, discrimination, or harassment on our platform. We take these types of allegations extremely seriously and have disabled this courier’s account.”

San Francisco Police did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.

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