U-Haul truck ‘accidentally’ hits several people in Brooklyn
At least four people were hit by a U-Haul truck driver who then led cops in a high-speed chase before being arrested in Brooklyn on Monday, police said.
The truck first hit at least three people who were riding mopeds near 5th Avenue and Bay Ridge Boulevard around 11 a.m. in Bay Ridge, according to police.
The driver was speeding down 4th Avenue and crashed into a pedestrian, police said.
He then jumped onto the Gowanus Expressway, where cops caught up with him about 30 minutes later and nearly three miles from Columbia Street and Hamilton Avenue in Red Hook, the NYPD said.
Police sources said the driver, a 62-year-old man who had not been previously arrested, was taken into custody on the charges.
The incident initially appeared random, according to sources who said police were checking to see if the man was homeless and living off the truck. The sources added that in 2019 he already had one mental health call to the police.
Police said a pedestrian hit on 4th Avenue, a man in his 30s, was taken to a Lutheran hospital where he was fighting for his life in critical condition.
Three moped riders suffered minor injuries, police said.
The NYPD said the incident was not terrorism related.
New York City Councilman Justin Brennan, whose county covers Bay Ridge, said it’s unclear what caused the riots.
“At this time, we do not know the motives, but this was not an accident,” he wrote.
As a precautionary measure following the arrest, the NYPD searched the U-Haul, a Post reporter noted and sources said.
According to sources, a bomb squad later cleared the truck, finding several bottles of washing powder in the back of the truck.
The tragic incident coincided with the start of the death sentence in the case of Islamic extremist Saifullo Saipov in federal court in Manhattan. An ISIS-inspired terrorist killed eight people with a rented Home Depot truck off the West Side Highway in October 2017.
This is an evolving story.
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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.