Woman hurls vile abuse, shoves Asian driver into traffic in LA
Disturbing video captures a woman spewing racial abuse at an Asian driver and shoving him into traffic after a minor fender-bender along a Los Angeles highway.
The video, stitched together from multiple angles and posted to TikTok last week, shows a woman yelling at another driver as they stand to the side of a highway, alongside a gray SUV and white minivan.
“Where is your insurance? You hit my car! I don’t give a f— about this bitch!” the woman, identified by the Daily Beast as Ashley Barkis, barks.
“You hit my car! So where is your insurance? Where is your insurance? Do you have a driver’s license? Are you from America? Do you even have papers? Are you legal to be here?” Barkis continues to yell, pointing toward his SUV while holding her camera to his face.
The Asian man, who is seen pointing his own camera at her, seemingly pulls out his ID but she slaps it out of his hand and onto the pavement.
The altercation then escalates and turns physical.
“Get off, dumbass!” Barkis yells as she reaches for his card, strikes him and finally shoves him into oncoming traffic.
The irate woman also is seen assaulting others at the scene. Several images show bruises on the victims’ bodies.
The TikToker who posted the viral footage declined to provide additional information to the news outlet.
Barkis, however, took to Instagram to apologize for her racist tirade.
“I’d like to apologize to the family for any pain or grief that this encounter has brought,” she says in her video, which is no longer available but has been shared by others.
“I would also like to apologize for any offense to the Asian community, as I am half Filipino. And I definitely don’t condone any violence or racism against anyone in this world,” she continues.
“If I could go back and do things differently, I would. I know I look extremely aggressive and agitated in the video that’s been circling around. However, I can only take a step forward and publicly show that’s not my true character.”
Barkis claimed she became more frustrated because she was unable to get a clear image of the man’s license.
“It was extremely difficult to take any reasonable pictures of the other driver’s license, as he wasn’t necessarily holding it even reasonably still for me to take any pictures of it,” she explains.
“I hope you guys understand now that I am not at all racist. I’m just a human being who needs a little bit more practice.”
The Daily Beast was unable to reach Barkis but her uncle insisted the “feisty” woman is not racist.
“Ashley is brown. Her ethnicity is Hispanic and Filipino,” Matthew Barkis told the outlet Tuesday, adding that his niece may have overreacted out of fear due to her upbringing in unsafe areas.
“The frustration out of the event may have caused all that [talk], but I know that she’s not racist,” he added.
The Post has reached out to the California Highway Patrol.
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