A chaotic road rage incident at an Auckland petrol station on Monday evening may have been caused by a violent altercation between a group of men and a driver who was allegedly yelling racist insults.
On Monday, a driver was filmed erratically ploughing into a man on the Manurewa Mobil forecourt before crashing into a parked car and attempting to flee.
The video has gone viral online, with the woman who uploaded it telling Newshub it started when the driver caused a scene "due to not liking brown people", before punching one of the men in the head.
"It was a racist attack, the white guy started it all," she said while alleging the driver was high on "some kind of drug or alcohol".
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She also said as the driver attempted to flee to his car, one of the men punched him.
Another witness Newshub spoke to said while he wasn’t sure what started the attack, he saw a group of men beating up an older man, who then got into his car and tried to ram the group.
“It looked like he was lost. They had bashed him... probably why he jumped in his car ’cause he was scared,” said Chief Toby, who noted there were nine men in the group.
After the driver crashed his car attempting to flee, the video shows the men approaching the car and the driver, who has visible injuries on his face, yelling "you're not moving anywhere bruh" at the man.
While police didn't provide details, they confirmed to Newshub an altercation had taken place before the road rage incident captured in the video and enquiries were underway.
Mr Toby said he was shocked by the event, which he witnessed from his vehicle at a nearby set of traffic lights, and didn't know why only the driver was taken into custody.
Police said the fuller picture would hopefully come clear with further enquiries.
Newshub.
