An elderly Texas man was hit in the back of the head by his Uber driver during a heated argument about leg room.
Surveillance video captured the harrowing moment Suleman Gauba, 68, was beaten in the Dallas Design District on Wednesday.
Footage shows the Uber driver arriving at Market Center Boulevard, where Gauba and his wife were waiting to be picked up.
The elderly couple is seen climbing into the backseat of the Uber driver’s Chevrolet Malibu.
An elderly Texas man was hit in the back of the head by his Uber driver after they had a heated argument about leg room
But the car does not move and remains in the same position for two and a half minutes.
Then Suleman gets out of the car, and as he walks away, the driver comes up behind him and hits him on the back of the head.
The force of the blow causes the 68-year-old to fall to the ground, where he lies sprawled.
As the driver towers over him, Gauba’s wife slowly steps out of the car.
According to Gauba, the violence stemmed from an everyday disagreement over the amount of legroom he had in the vehicle.
“I can’t sit in the backseat,” he said Fox4. “A very small place, you know?”
After Gauba complained to the Uber driver about the limited leg space, he said the driver abruptly canceled the ride and ordered him to exit the vehicle.
Gauba hopes authorities can find the driver and mete out justice
“He said, ‘I’m canceling your ride,’” the 68-year-old recalled.
Gauba said he asked, “Why are you canceling my ride?” Around this point, he said his wife told the driver, “I’m calling the police.”
Before authorities arrived, the suspect was able to drive away.
Gauba, who is originally from Pakistan, described the feelings he experienced when the driver hit him in the back of the head.
Surveillance video captured the harrowing moment when Suleman Gauba, 68, was beaten in the Dallas Design District on Wednesday
‘I thought… what happened to me? Why [did] did he hit me?’
After moving to Dallas from New Mexico a few years ago, the 68-year-old said he has come to rely on Uber rides to get around the city.
“We wanted to go to Walmart,” Gauba told Fox4.
He hopes authorities can find the driver and mete out justice.
“He deserves jail,” Gauba said.
Dallas police are investigating the incident. They confirmed an argument took place before the driver struck the 68-year-old in the head.
Gauba and his wife have already filed a complaint with Uber, which told Fox4 that “violence of any kind will not be tolerated” on their platform.
“We have contacted the passenger and removed the driver’s access to the platform,” Uber concluded in the statement.