Anjali Ramkissoon, the Miami doctor filmed yelling profanities and assaulting an Uber driver, has apologized for her actions, saying she is “ashamed,” MSN is reporting .
On January 19, YouTube user Juan Cinco posted a video entitled “Drunk Girl Tries To Hijack An Uber and Destroys His Car!” In the video, which you can see below (Warning: Video contains strong language), an apparently drunk woman — later identified as Miami doctor Anjali Ramkissoon — can be seen assaulting an unidentified Uber driver while the man calmly asks bystanders to call 911.
According to Juan Cinco’s version of events, which has not been independently confirmed as of this writing, the police showed up after the assault and placed Ramkissoon in handcuffs. She continued to kick at the police, and only when she was placed in the back of the police car did she begin crying and saying she was going to lose her medical license.
The driver declined to press charges against Ramkissoon, instead taking a “cash settlement” from her. Cinco says that it was enough to “pay his cell phone bill and maybe his cable bill.”
The video has since gone viral, gaining over 5,600,000 views as of this writing.
The fallout from the video has cost Dr. Ramkissoon dearly. Internet hackers have leaked private photos of her, disclosed her place of employment, and have even posted photos of her family members online in what the Miami New Times describes as a “ vigilante justice campaign .” The fourth-year neurology resident with the Jackson Health System has been relieved of her duties at her job pending an investigation. She has even received anonymous text messages telling her to kill herself.
On Wednesday, Ramkissoon appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America to talk to news anchor George Stephanopoulos about what happened that night, and the aftermath.
“I see a person that is not me. I’m ashamed. I still can’t watch the entire video. Every time someone brings it up or tries to ask me, ‘What was happening at this point?,’ I just, I can’t.”
While admitting that there are no excuses for her behavior, Ramkissoon tried to explain herself as best she could. She told Stephanopoulos that, even before getting hammered and assaulting an Uber driver, she had lived through one of the worst days of her life. She said her father had recently been admitted to the hospital, and her boyfriend of two years had just broken up with her.
Ramkissoon confirmed Juan Cinco’s statement that she paid off the Uber driver to avoid having charges pressed against him.
“We actually settled while we were out there. I paid for the damages and I apologized to him and he accepted my apology. I’m so thankful that he did not press charges, that he did not have me arrested.”
Ramkissoon is not the first Uber rider to learn the hard way that when you act up in public and assault someone, and do it on video, you’re going to pay a price. Thirty-two-year-old Benjamin Golden lost his job as a Taco Bell executive after video of him drunkenly assaulting an Uber driver went viral.
Golden has since sued the Uber driver for $5 million, saying the video has ruined his life, according to this Inquisitr report .
Ramkissoon wants her story to be a lesson to everyone else about their behavior in public in the internet age.
“I did it, and I’m ashamed of what I did, and this would never happen again. At the same time, I think that I should also speak out to send a message out to people and the public to be careful and use my story as a lesson to be careful what you do in public because the things that we do can be taped, and we can have to suffer severe ramifications for these things.”
Do you think Anjali Ramkissoon should lose her job for her videotaped assault on an Uber driver? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Image via YouTube]