LOS ANGELES, CA – A woman captured on video spewing racist insults at an Indian American family aboard an LAX shuttle bus has cited a brain injury as a contributing factor to her outburst, according to multiple reports.
The incident occurred on a United Airlines shuttle bus during the Thanksgiving holiday week. Photographer Pervez Taufiq, who was traveling with his wife and two young sons, recorded the interaction, which began when the woman, identified by reports as 64-year-old Arlene Bunch, told his children to be quiet.
“That really made me snap,” Taufiq said, describing the moment that prompted him to confront Bunch. “I said, ‘You can’t talk to my sons that way.’”
In the recorded footage, Bunch is seen making obscene gestures and hurling slurs, calling the family “f*****g crazy” and “tandoori stinky,” while labeling Indian people as “gross.”
Taufiq, who was born in the U.S., responded to her remarks, at which point Bunch declared, “You are racist toward me, I’m American.”
Bunch, a licensed California real estate broker, has since claimed in an interview that she was provoked by the family and that her behavior was partly due to a brain injury sustained in a propane explosion at her Mammoth Lakes home in March 2023.
“Most people know me as a very kind, calm person, but since the brain injury, I can get agitated very easily,” Bunch reportedly said. However, she also accused Taufiq of calling her a derogatory term and alleged that the family was “aggressive” while boarding the shuttle.
Despite these claims, Bunch showed little remorse for her comments, which included disparaging remarks about the family’s clothing. “Supposedly, they are first class,” she said. “Obviously, with no class.”
Taufiq, describing his family as proud Americans, expressed disappointment that only one passenger on the bus intervened on their behalf before a United Airlines employee eventually removed Bunch from the shuttle.
“The takeaway for us is definitely if you see something, say something,” Taufiq said. “Do your best because you could be next, and you want everyone to be in your corner right when it happens.”
The video has since gone viral, drawing widespread condemnation of Bunch’s behavior and sparking conversations about bystander intervention in incidents of public harassment.
