COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — The Uber driver who attacked two passengers with a snow brush last month was sentenced Friday to anger management classes.
"It's really an uncalled for attack," Cook County Judge Anthony John Calabrese told driver Chieh Wang, 37, during a hearing Friday. "Nothing — nothing — that happened here is the fault of the" passengers.
According to court testimony, Wang was called to pick up two women at 255 E. Grand Ave. on Dec. 15. When one of the passengers wasn't ready, Wang became angry and attacked the women with a snow brush, breaking one of their cellphones.
Wang pleaded guilty to battery Friday and was sentenced to 1½ years of probation, anger management classes and $800 in restitution to cover the broken phone.
"I'm sorry," Wang said as he turned to the victims in court. "This has never happened before, and it won't happen again."
After the hearing, one of the would-be passengers, Kourtney Wilson, told DNAinfo Chicago she was "just glad that it's over and [Wang] can get the help he needs."
The second passenger, Toni Sanders, said she was "stunned" by the attack.
According to Sanders, she and Wilson were inside a Whole Foods when they hailed Uber on Dec. 15. Sanders was checking out at the register when Wang pulled up, she said, so Wilson headed outside to grab the ride.
As Sanders walked outside, "seconds behind" Wilson, she saw Wilson stepping out of Wang's car because "he didn't want to wait," she said. Wang then got out of his car and confronted the women.
"He said, 'Do you want to fight me?'" Sanders recalled. "I was stunned. I said, 'Sir, no one wants to fight you.'"
Sanders and Wilson hailed a different Uber and watched Wang drive away, Sanders said. But as the pair waited outside, they spotted Wang's car circling back. He pulled an ice scraper from the trunk of his car and began to attack the women until bystanders intervened.
Wang has no idea why he attacked the women, his attorney said in court Friday.
Wang later declined to speak with press.
According to his attorney, Wang is a permanent resident of the U.S. He is married with two children, has lived here for 13 years and has no prior criminal history.
Prosecutors pushed for a sentence that included jail time.
Though Calabrese said it was "troubling" Wang was employed by Uber at the time of the attack, he felt jail time would be "extraordinarily unfair" since Wang has no prior history.
Sanders said she hasn't taken Uber since the attack because "I can't trust it anymore."
After the Dec. 15 incident, Uber spokeswoman Kayla Whaling said in a statement: "This type of behavior is unacceptable and is not tolerated. As soon as we were aware of this incident, we immediately removed this driver's access to Uber."
The Tribune obtained video of the attack, which can be viewed here.
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