NYC U-Haul driver Weng Sor charged with murder as cops reveal disturbing details of rampage

The alleged crazed U-Haul driver who hit at least eight people during the more than an hour-long madness in Brooklyn was charged with murder on Tuesday as police uncovered what may have triggered his murderous rampage.

Ven Sor, 62, was “suffering from a mental breakdown” when he allegedly unleashed a spree Monday morning that killed a single father and left a trail of injured New Yorkers.

“He states that when he is driving in his van, he sees an invisible object approaching the car, and at that moment he says:“ I have had enough, ”and begins to run amok,” said the Chief of the New York Police Department, James Essig. press briefing announcing the allegations.

“There was no item.”

Police said Sor, who has a long list of charges in Nevada and a history of mental illness, was about to commit suicide with the help of a police officer.

One victim, 44-year-old Yijie Ye, a father of three who took a job as an Uber Eats driver to help feed his children, died in the incident and another fell into an induced coma. The rest of the injured, including the police officer, are expected to recover.

According to Essig, in addition to the murder charge, he faces seven episodes of attempted murder.

“We have a lot of information from his family, who confirmed that he was not on medication,” Essig said. “He does say to the police when he is arrested, ‘You should have shot me.’

Just five days earlier, Sor, who police said rented a van in West Palm Beach, Florida, was pulled over at Belt Parkway on February 1 for speeding and driving a commercial vehicle, and was pulled over for reckless driving in South Carolina. . February 5, police sources said.

The Brooklyn chaos began shortly before 10:20 am Monday at Fourth Avenue and 55th Street in Brooklyn when a 36-year-old pedestrian was hit and broke his leg and was later taken to NYU Langon Hospital in Brooklyn.

According to sources, the man, identified by relatives and sources as Mohammed Salah Rakchi, was later placed in a medically induced coma.

The U-Haul reappeared at 10:29 a.m. near Fifth Avenue and Senator Street, where the van hit another pedestrian, a 33-year-old man.

Approximately two minutes later, a 30-year-old man was knocked off his U-Haul e-bike near Bay Ridge Parkway and Seventh Avenue, while the victim was hit in the head.

At 10:36 a.m., a van plowed into a 51-year-old man on Bay Ridge near 12th Avenue and was also shot in the head – and was only listed as a victim of the rampage after he entered the Maimonides Medical Center. after the incident.

A few minutes later, Ye, who was riding an e-bike, was hit and suffered a serious head injury near the Bay Ridge Parkway and Fifth Avenue.

Ye was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later.

Just two minutes after Ye was hit, U-Haul hit a 38-year-old man on Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton Boulevards, resulting in an ankle injury.

It was then that the police were first able to stop the van and run into Sor, who allegedly yelled at the cops, “Shoot me!”

The van drove off, crashing into a scooter that hit a 33-year-old police officer who suffered cuts to his waist, neck and leg and was taken to Langone in stable condition.

At around 11:05 a.m., U-Haul was seen on CCTV footage walking up the sidewalk at 73rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn, where a 66-year-old man was hit and suffered neck and knee injuries, police said.

Police finally caught up with the van at Columbia Street and Hamilton Avenue, where police said Sor was taken into custody without incident.

“We have no indication that he was about to turn himself in,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, New York City Council member Justin Brennan called the victims of the four-wheel rampage “just people with the salt of the earth.”

“There are a lot of immigrant families, just working people who go about their business during the day, getting from point A to point B, you know?” He said.

“I think that yesterday we experienced a lot of shock and disbelief, and I think that [today] you know, it’s a little bit of anger,” Brennan said. “Getting behind the wheel of a truck and using it as a weapon, aiming it at people and hitting people, that’s a choice.”

“It’s a deliberate choice, so there’s a lot of anger in it.”