By DEEPTI HAJELA and MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — A person driving a U-Haul truck swerved onto sidewalks and plowed into cyclists and scooter riders in New York City on Monday, killing one particular person and injuring eight others earlier than police have been in a position to pin the careening car in opposition to a constructing following a mileslong pursuit by means of Brooklyn.
The driver was arrested and brought to a police station. His son recognized him as Weng Sor, 62, a troubled man with a historical past of dangerous habits and stints behind bars.
The mayhem unfolded over a harrowing 48 minutes because the truck tore by means of Brooklyn’s bustling Bay Ridge neighborhood, hitting individuals at a number of factors alongside the way in which earlier than veering on and off a freeway as police gave chase.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell described it as a “violent rampage,” however stated there was no proof of “terrorism involvement.”
The 9 individuals struck by the car ranged in age from 30 to 66. All have been males. One of the injured individuals was a police officer.
The 44-year-old man who was killed suffered a head harm when he was hit by the truck roughly a half hour after it struck the primary sufferer, the police division stated in an announcement.
The truck’s winding route ended when a police cruiser reduce it off and blocked it in opposition to a constructing close to the doorway to a tunnel main from Brooklyn to Manhattan, greater than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the place the chase started.
Weng Sor’s son, Stephen Sor, 30, informed The Associated Press that his father had a historical past of psychological sickness and, till lately, was residing in Las Vegas, the place information present he was convicted and served time for a number of acts of violence, together with stabbing his personal brother.
“Very frequently he’ll choose to skip out on his medications and do something like this,” Stephen Sor stated in an interview outdoors his Brooklyn dwelling. “This isn’t the first time he’s been arrested. It’s not the first time he’s gone to jail.”
The destruction shattered the late-morning routine and instantly evoked reminiscences of different car assaults on bikers and pedestrians within the crowded metropolis, together with a terrorist’s lethal 2017 assault that killed eight individuals on a Manhattan bike path and a disturbed motorist’s rampage by means of Times Square the identical 12 months that killed one and injured 20.
The truck struck the primary sufferer at 10:17 a.m., police stated, and different stories adopted because the car moved by means of a busy part of Brooklyn, simply north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge alongside New York Harbor.
The neighborhood, a melting pot of immigrants from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, is called the setting of “Saturday Night Fever,” and components of TV’s “Blue Bloods.” Each fall, it hosts a leg of the New York City Marathon.
Katherine Aronova stated she noticed the U-Haul run a crimson gentle, hit a supply employee on an e-bike in the midst of the street and drag him a brief distance.
“His face was covered with blood. He was unconscious,” and his sneakers have been scattered on the sidewalk, Aronova stated. “The electric bicycle was destroyed completely.”
A safety digital camera captured the truck clipping a scooter, then swerving onto a sidewalk and almost plowing right into a pedestrian, who dived to security simply in time. A police patrol automobile then adopted the truck down the sidewalk at excessive velocity.
“I was in shock and didn’t know what was happening until I saw the police patrol was chasing it,” a witness, Andrea Vasquez, stated in Spanish. “Thank God that man saved himself,” she added of the one that narrowly escaped.
After the chase ended, authorities examined the car to verify it didn’t comprise explosives.
Sor rented the truck in West Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 1 and was as a result of return it there on March 3, U-Haul spokesperson Jeff Lockridge stated. He offered a sound driver’s license and paid for a 30-day rental upfront. U-Haul had no file of Sor beforehand renting from the corporate, Lockridge stated.
Stephen Sor stated he was stunned when Weng Sor confirmed up in Brooklyn in the midst of the night time a couple of week in the past. He stated they didn’t converse typically and described their relationship as “rocky.”
“I try to just distance, as long as he leaves us alone,” Stephen Sor stated.
In 2015, Weng Sor stabbed his brother in Las Vegas and served about 17 months in a Nevada jail, in response to courtroom and jail information. In 2020, he stabbed somebody within the arm and chest with a knife and was sentenced to 364 days in county jail, with about 10 months of time already served.
Before pleading responsible in that case, Sor underwent a number of months of evaluations at state psychiatric services till he was discovered competent to face costs, courtroom information present. The information don’t record a doable analysis, however be aware that Sor was positioned on medicines.
In an earlier Nevada case, Sor was ordered to bear counseling and carry out group service after pleading responsible to misdemeanor battery in 2005. The decide famous on the time that Sor was shifting to New York and ordered him to undergo a psychological well being analysis as soon as there.
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Associated Press journalists Julie Walker, David Martin, Michelle Price and Robert Bumsted in New York City; Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco; and Ken Ritter and Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Nevada, contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”