Lyft ride turns into race-driven verbal assault

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - On January 18th, what began as a standard Lyft ride for De’Andre Andrews quickly escalated into a racial encounter.

It began as a discussion about directions to Andrews’ work and quickly boiled into an argument. Then the driver started shouting racial slurs at Andrews.

“So then he makes a right to go into Lincoln High School. Sitting in the parking lot and then something told me to start recording,” Andrews said.

Andrews caught the verbal assault on video.

“Black people on welfare, we steal and all this other stuff and I was just like, why did you accept my ride then if you don’t like black people,” Andrews said.

Eventually, the police were called by the driver, Andrews was pleasantly surprised by the encounter with the police officers when they arrived.

“They were both very respectful in the situation. It was kind of good to run into two officers who really wanted to know what the truth was,” Andrews said.

There are no charges against the driver, but police say calling them was the right decision.

“What we would encourage people, is if they experience something like that, call the police and we can certainly look into things,” Officer Sam Clemens.

De’Andre grew up in Oakland but has lived in South Dakota for 21 years.

“South Dakota’s a great place to live and raise kids, it’s just you’re going to have a few sour grapes here and there,” Andrews said.

The most troubling part about the situation for Andrews is not that it happened to him, it’s the fear that it could happen to his three children.

“This is something that I’m going to have to worry about my kids, and I think that’s going to be more hurtful and hard to deal with,” Andrews said.

Andrews was able to stay calm throughout the encounter.

“Just so happens I was the right victim that day because I didn’t react to it,” Andrews said.

Lyft issued the following statement regarding the incident.

“The behavior shown in the video is unacceptable. There is no place for discrimination or harassment of any kind on the platform. We have permanently removed the driver from the Lyft community and have reached out to the rider to offer our support.”

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