A man whose family was subjected to a racist tirade while on a shuttle bus at LAX is opening up about the disturbing encounter. Darsha Philips reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.
A man whose family was subjected to a racist tirade while on a shuttle bus at LAX says his children are having a difficult time processing the disheartening encounter.
In a video captured on Nov. 23 and posted to Instagram, Pervez Taufiq recorded a woman hurling racial insults at his family after their return from a trip to Cancun, Mexico to Los Angeles International Airport. According to Taufiq, who was heading back home to Massachusetts with his loved ones, the woman was seated next to his 11-year-old son on a United Airlines flight.
The man said the woman questioned the boy, who was sitting separately from the family, about his heritage. Once the family boarded a shuttle to taxi to the terminal, the woman told his children to shut up and then began her racist tirade.
“Your family is from India. You have no respect, you have no rules. You think you can push, push, push,” she can be heard saying in the video. “That’s who you think you are. You guys are f—king crazy.”
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“Yeah, your tandoori stinky ass,” the woman is also heard saying.
The video ends with a United employee speaking to the woman and another passenger asking the employee to remove the woman. The woman then exits the shuttle bus and speaks to United employees on the tarmac.
Taufiq said he and his family are pursuing charges against the woman and hope she’s placed on a no-fly list. While that unfolds, he said his 11-year-old son is having a hard time processing what happened.
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“He couldn’t figure out why random grownup was being rude and why does this lady hate my daddy and Indians,” Taufiq said.
NBCLA could not independently confirm the events that led up to what's seen on the video. NBCLA attempted to contact the woman seen in the video, but did not receive a response.
NBC10 Boston spoke to a woman who claimed to be the one in the video. She said she suffers from a traumatic brain injury and said her actions were out of line. NBC4 has reached out to the woman believed to be in the video. She has not responded to our request for a comment.
In a statement, United refused to comment on the matter.
“We don’t have any additional information to share,” the airline’s statement read.
