Police say NYC U-Haul driver rampages cause eight injuries

The truck raced through the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn before police stopped it at the entrance to a tunnel leading from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

NEW YORK. A man driving a U-Haul truck veered onto the sidewalk and crashed into scooter drivers in New York City on Monday, injuring several people before police could pin the vehicle against a building after a miles-long chase through Brooklyn.

At least eight people were injured, two in critical condition. The driver was arrested. His son identified him as 62-year-old Weng Sor, a troubled man with a history of abuse and time behind bars.

NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell described the driver’s behavior as a “violent rampage” but said there was no evidence of “involvement in terrorism”.

The truck raced through the Bay Ridge area before police stopped it more than 5 kilometers away, near the entrance to a tunnel leading from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Weng Sor’s son, Stephen Sor, 30, told The Associated Press that his father suffered from mental illness and lived in Las Vegas until recently.

“A lot of the time he goes off medication and does stuff like that,” Stephen Sahr said in an interview outside his Brooklyn home. This is not the first time he has been arrested. It’s not the first time he’s been in jail.”

Police said the first report of the truck hitting pedestrians and cyclists came at 10:30 a.m., and more reports followed as the vehicle passed through a busy area of ​​Brooklyn.

Katherine Aronova said she saw U-Haul run a red light, hit an e-bike courier in the middle of the road and drag him a short distance.

“His face was covered in blood. He was unconscious,” and his shoes were strewn across the pavement, Aronova said. “The electric bike has been completely destroyed.”

CCTV video showed the truck clipping the scooter, then swerving onto the pavement and nearly crashing into a pedestrian who ducked to safety just in time. The police patrol car then followed the truck down the sidewalk at high speed.

“I was in shock and did not understand what was happening until I saw that a police patrol was chasing him,” witness Andrea Vazquez said in Spanish. “Thank God, this man saved himself,” she added about the man who miraculously managed to escape.

Aerial footage from news helicopters showed the truck on the sidewalk after the chase ended, with a police vehicle blocking its path. Authorities inspected the car to make sure it was free of explosives.

Sewall said that among the injured was a police officer who arrived at the scene.

Bay Ridge, a melting pot of immigrants from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, lies just north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge along New York Harbor.

It is widely known as the setting for the 1977 John Travolta film Saturday Night Fever and as the home of the police commissioner played by Tom Selleck in the television series Blue Bloods. Every fall, the New York City Marathon is held here.

Steven Sohr has described his relationship with his father as “uneasy” and has said that his father had a history of mental illness and was also not on medication or acting. He said he rarely spoke to his father and was surprised when he showed up in Brooklyn in the middle of the night about a week ago.

“I try to just keep my distance while he leaves us alone,” Sor said.

Weng Sor’s court cases date back nearly two decades.

In 2015, he stabbed his brother to death in Las Vegas and served about 17 months in a Nevada jail, according to court and prison records. In 2020, he stabbed someone in the arm and chest and was sentenced to 364 days in county jail, of which he had already served about 10 months.

Before pleading guilty in this case, Sor underwent several months of examinations in state psychiatric institutions until he was found capable of filing charges, court records show. The records do not indicate a possible diagnosis, but note that Sor was on medication.

In an earlier case in Nevada, Sor was ordered to undergo counseling and perform community service after pleading guilty to battery in 2005. The judge noted that he was moving to New York soon and ordered him to undergo a mental health examination upon arrival.

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