Golden has been terminated from his position as a brand manager for Taco Bell Corp., based in Irvine, according to a statement released Monday by Taco Bell Corp. Caban says they have also offered to reimburse him for cleaning out the pepper spray.
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Golden was Taco’s Bells Mobile Experience & Innovation Lead, according to his online bio. Golden had worked for the fast-food corporation’s parent company, Yum! The man can be seen falling over in the back seat as Mr Caban takes a turn.
That’s when things escalate.
Caban picked the 32-year-old passenger up from a bar.
Luckily Mr Caban has pepper spray close at hand and he maces his assailant in the face, forcing him out. “The only way that I felt I was going to get him to stop beating me was to incapacitate him, was to use a few kind of self-defense”, Caban tells CBS News.
Benjamin Golden, 32, of Newport Beach was booked on suspicion of assault and battery and being drunk in public, Lapointe said. He was charged with public intoxication and assault, police told NBC Southern California.
Was the Uber driver right to ask his passenger to leave? And that’s when Golden reached in front of him and hit the driver several times in the head, the video shows, and then yanked the victim’s head back and forth.
The L.A. Times identified the driver as Edward Caban; the newspaper also confirmed that a clip of the incident that Caban posted to YouTube was the footage authorities looked at. The man opens the door, but before getting out, police said he punched Caban.
Caban then pulls into what appears to be a lighted parking lot and says the ride is over, but the suspect responds to take him to “Park Newport”.
Uber is always a good idea if you’re too drunk to drive.
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Kayla Whaling, an Uber spokesman, told BuzzFeed News that they were in contact with Caban and was “thankful that he’s OK”. He said he has quit Uber because he no longer feels safe. “I didn’t think that something like this would happen this early in the night”.
