Man Arrested For Assaulting Uber Driver in Nassau: Police

BETHPAGE, NY - A Bethpage man was arrested on Wednesday in connection to an incident where an Uber driver was assaulted and called racial slurs in Bethpage last month, according to Nassau Police.

Christopher Antonacci, 22, was charged with third degree assault and second degree harassment, police said.

According to police, on Nov. 26 at about 3 a.m., a 40-year-old male driver picked up two men and a woman in Melville with a destination of Bethpage.

While driving south on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway by Old Country Road, the driver was asked to stop at a store, police said.

When the driver refused to stop, one of the passengers began punching him in the head. The driver continued driving and was ordered off at the Plainview Road exit ramp in Bethpage and again was punched in his head multiple times in the vicinity of Prospect Street, police said.

The three passengers were let out and they fled on foot in an unknown direction. The driver called police and was transported to a local hospital to be treated for swelling and bruising to his head, police say.

On Dec. 5, the victim told police that while he was being punched, racial slurs were being used.

The other two passengers are still at large. Antonacci will be arraigned on Thursday.