A lot of comments here, some correct, many incorrect.

First, United's PR department could not have screwed this up any worse than they did. Horrible handling of the incident.

Second. KEY POINT. Dr Dao had already accepted the voluntary denied boarding offer and was deplaned. When told that he would not be able to take another flight until the next morning (his VDB included a hotel voucher), he freaked out and at that point committed trespassing by running back onto the aircraft.
Why United PR never made this information public is beyond me. See point one.

Third, there has been discussion on Dao's big payout. From what I've been able to gather, he didn't get much. Enough to cover medical bills but that's about it. Note that his high profile lawyer(s) melted into the ether shortly after coming forth to represent him (Corby & Demetrio, where art thou?) … they likely reviewed the details of the event and chose to disengage from the $hitshow.

Fourth, the ONLY reason Dao popped back up in the news cycle is that his nondisclosure agreement expired. He's obviously angling for more money; fortunately, this story died very quickly after the NDA expired.

Finally, did I mention that United's PR department sucks?

Amazing how many commenting here seem to forget that one precious little detail. How his “right” to get from point A to B was guaranteed in his ticket purchase. He gave it up.

How offering more money and another customer would have taken the offer and the whole incident would have never happened. Well, Dr, (dinky) Dau ALREADY accepted and offer and relinquished his seat.

You do know that, right ShyGuy?

Probably the main reason he settled instead of going to trial, if ALL the details were to be put together in one place all of the sudden his predicament wouldn’t look so dire. A fact not overlooked by whoever eventually took the case.

Why....? Could it be because he’s OTW?

OTW? Not a common acronym. Off the wall? Over the weekend? Out of this world? On the web? On the whole? On the wagon? Off the wagon? WTF are you going for here?

https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/OTW

Other Than White?

I don't see how race was involved with what BMEP quoted.

Are the there any sources for the detail that he took the offer, deplaned, and then changed his mind and barged back onboard? This was not in any of the news articles or discussions from back when the incident happened.

It was, but was glossed over by the press.