Suspect on the viral racist attack on a taxi driver surrenders himself (Dublin, IE)

Dublin, Ireland — A man hands himself in after being involved in a shocking incident with a taxi driver that went viral on Twitter.

The man, which the police refuses to identify, can be heard shouting racial slurs at the driver before he attacks him physically. The incident happened at 10pm on Easter Sunday night on the Malahide Road in Donnycarney, north Dublin.

In the dashcam footage, the man asks the driver “what’s your favorite position?” The driver responds: “I don’t understand what you mean by my favorite position.” The man then proceeds to attack the driver while claiming to be a police officer.

After several racial insults and physical abuse, the man finally removes his seatbelt and exits the car.

The footage was uploaded by taxi driver Damien Hetherington and has been shared thousands of times. The video uploader states that taxi drivers have been suffering from assault in recent weeks.

Vincent Kearns, CEO of Xpert Taxis and former taxi driver, shares the same statement.

“If I get a driver, whether it be a Nigerian driver or an Indian driver, someone who is easily identifiable by race as not being Irish, I ask them if they have ever suffered any type of racial abuse. The majority of them say, ‘nothing too serious, but yes,’” Vincent stated.

He further explained that such cases happen on Friday or Saturday nights, when the passenger is either high or drunk. Unfortunately, majority of these incidents go unreported.

Following the incident, Gardaí released a statement on Twitter addressing the viral video.

Garda on recent racist incident involving a passenger and a taxi driver in Dublin, Ireland

Derek Devoy, a taxi driver who founded a suicide prevention service run by drivers, had contacted the suspect. He reveals that the man intends on handing himself in to gardaí.

“I spoke to him for an hour this morning. He’s 100% remorseful but I don’t think that’s going to help him,” he stated.

In 2015 the Immigrant Council of Ireland recorded 54 incidents of racial abuse between January 2013 and November 2015. The council interviewed 23 non-Irish taxi drivers for the report. One states that he constantly receives racial insults at taxi ranks. While other drivers report that some passengers will even refuse to ride with non-Irish taxi drivers.

As of now, Garda will not release any further comment regarding the incident during the investigation.