by Several people were hit by a U-Haul truck in Brooklyn, New York.
Several pedestrians were hit by the vehicle and a cyclist was dragged by the truck on Monday morning.
The incident occurred around 11 am at three different locations near 5th Avenue and the Bay Ridge Parkway, officials said.
Police attempted to hold a traffic stop at 10:49 am after spotting the truck moving erratically. The driver fled from the police and hit several people. The New York Police Department said at least five people were injured, according to the independents Richard Hall on site.
The driver was then arrested near the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, according to New York City Councilman Justin Brannan.
He tweeted: “A man driving a U-Haul went on a rampage in Bay Ridge… Several people were hit and seriously injured. We have no idea why at this point, but it was not an accident.”
“We think he hit at least 6 people with the truck and 2 are in pretty bad shape. PLEASE pray for these people,” he added.
The truck hit several people after driving onto a sidewalk in Bay Ridge, ABC7 reported.
A U-Haul was stopped in Brooklyn after killing several people
(Screenshots / ABC7)
(AP)
(AP)
(Associated press)
One of the injured was a 30-year-old man who was taken to Lutheran Hospital in critical condition. Three men riding a motorcycle suffered minor injuries after being hit by the truck.
The driver exited onto the Gowanus Expressway after the accidents and took the Hamilton Avenue exit before being surrounded by police on Columbia Street in Red Hook.
“The police stopped this driver and tried to get him to pull over, and at that point he said something like ‘I want to die’ and started driving on the sidewalks of Bay Ridge,” Brannan said, according to ABC7.
Police detained the suspect for questioning and a bomb squad was called to the scene.
Roberts Boyce, former chief of detectives for the NYPD, told ABC News that the incident reminds him of what happened in 2017, when a man killed several people while driving down a busy street in Manhattan.
“It was the first thing I thought of,” Boyce said. “I worked on the Sayfull Saipov case, I remember how dangerous it was and what he did and how deadly it was. That was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard (about) the rental truck. So let’s hope it’s not that and that it’s a person in mental distress right now and nothing more than that. It’s hard to link the two now, but how could you not think about it?”
Monday’s incident coincided with the start of the death penalty trial for Saipov, an Islamic extremist, ABC7 reported.
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