Atlanta sports reporter Tabitha Turner alleges she was pepper-sprayed in the face and physically attacked by an Uber driver over the weekend after a dispute over the car temperature.
The Uber driver, whom police identified as Mericole Smith, faces charges of misdemeanor battery and simple battery after Hapeville police said a video of the Saturday incident showed that she was the aggressor and physically attacked Turner. Police said an arrest warrant would be issued for Smith.
Turner's attorney, Miguel Dominguez, said at a news conference Wednesday that the altercation occurred as Turner was being driven to her home from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Smith, who accused Turner of escalating the situation in a viral TikTok video, didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.
According to Dominguez, Turner had requested an Uber Comfort, which allows passengers to customize the ride. Uber's website says passengers who use the service can let their drivers know whether they want to talk during the ride and set temperature preferences.
Because of the scorching hot temperatures in Atlanta, Turner wanted "a cool Uber," Dominguez said. But when Smith arrived, she had the windows rolled down and the air conditioner wasn't turned on, he said.
Dominguez said that when Turner asked for the windows to be rolled up, Smith escalated the situation.
“The driver did not respond verbally, but she did put the air conditioner on, but she did not roll the windows up. And so as the ride went on, the vehicle obviously did not cool off,” he told reporters. “My client was really hot, she was sweaty, she addressed the driver again, asking that the windows be rolled up. The response she got from the driver was not kind and was not friendly. The driver was clearly irritated by, I guess, the demands of a passenger.”
Dominguez said the driver suddenly pulled over in the emergency lane on the expressway and ordered Turner out of the vehicle. He said Turner didn’t get out and told the driver to either take her back to the airport, where it was safe, or call the police and refund her fare.
According to the attorney, Turner was “completely calm.” He alleged that Smith exited the car, removed Turner’s bags and then tried to “physically remove my client from the vehicle by grabbing the bookbag that she was carrying and getting into a struggle.”
In her TikTok video, Smith says she turned the air conditioner up after Turner commented about how hot the car was. However, she says she does not roll up the windows because she sometimes has passengers who are sick. Smith says the windows were only slightly cracked.
According to Smith, Turner started yelling at her, so she told Turner that she would take her back to the airport and end the trip.
“That was not good enough for her,” Smith says in her video. “She is going off. She is irate in the back seat, tripping, so I pull over. I’m like, actually, yeah, I’m going to need you to get out right here. So I pull over in Hapeville, we’re off the highway.”
In the video, Smith says she told Turner that Uber would refund her but that Turner refused to leave. Because the situation was escalating, Smith flagged down a passerby and asked that they call 911.
Smith says she then opened the car door and again asked Turner to get out. She alleges that Turner went “in her bag to get a weapon.” According to Smith, she got back in her car and pepper-sprayed Turner “in self-defense.”
But Dominguez said Smith pepper-sprayed his client in an unprovoked attack. In a 30-second video clip released by his office, Smith tells Turner to get out of the car.
She then leans into the back seat as she curses and screams at Turner, the video shows.
The incident continued to escalate as both women exited the vehicle.
According to Dominguez, Smith physically assaulted Turner and pulled out some of her hair. Smith alleges in her video that Turner ran toward her and tried "to gouge" her eye out. She says in her video, which has more than 2 million views, that she had to get stitches on her eye.
According to a police report, Smith initiated the physical assault, and Turner scratched her while she was trying to defend herself.
