MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – An Uber driver was attacked early Sunday morning in Myrtle Beach after a group of drunk people refused the ride once it arrived, according to Myrtle Beach Police.
An incident report says the Uber driver arrived to pick up a rider in the 6400 block of North Kings Highway around 1:40 a.m. Sunday. The driver told police that when he arrived, he got into a verbal argument with the customer and the customer’s friend.
The customer refused the ride and the Uber driver began to pull away, the report states. The customer then threw a lit cigarette into the Uber driver’s vehicle. The driver got out of his car to get the cigarette out of the back seat. When he did that, the suspect, later identified as Justin Cardascia, 28, ran towards him “yelling and pushed (the victim) into his car,” cutting the driver’s arm. Cardascia then started punching the victim in the head until his friends pulled him off the Uber driver, according to the police report.
As his friends were pulling him away from the car, Cardascia allegedly kicked the driver’s door handle, ripping it off the car door.
When officers arrived, Cardascia and his friends, all intoxicated according to the responding officer, had walked a block away from the fight location and all claimed that the fight was only verbal. Cardascia was arrested and charged with assault and battery and malicious injury to property.