By DEEPTI HAJELA and MICHAEL R. SISAK
NEW YORK (AP) — A person driving a U-Haul truck swerved onto sidewalks and plowed into scooter riders in New York City on Monday, injuring a number of folks earlier than police have been in a position to pin the careening automobile in opposition to a constructing following a mileslong pursuit by means of Brooklyn.
At least eight folks have been harm, two critically. The driver was arrested. 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 hour because the truck tore by means of Brooklyn’s bustling Bay Ridge neighborhood, hitting folks at a number of factors alongside the best way 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 truck, rented by Sor in Florida on Feb. 1, traveled a winding route earlier than police stopped it 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, instructed The Associated Press that his father had a historical past of psychological sickness and, till lately, was dwelling in Las Vegas, the place information present he’s been 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 residence. “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 automobile assaults on bikers and pedestrians within the crowded metropolis, together with a terrorist’s lethal 2017 assault that killed eight folks 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 first report of a truck crashing into pedestrians and cyclists got here in at 10:30 a.m., police stated, and different reviews adopted because the automobile 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 elements 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 pink mild, hit a supply employee on an e-bike in the midst of the highway 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 practically 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.
A police officer responding to the incident was among the many injured.
Aerial video from information helicopters confirmed the truck on a sidewalk after the chase ended, its path blocked by a police cruiser. Authorities examined the automobile to ensure it didn’t include explosives.
Sor rented the truck in West Palm Beach, Florida on Feb. 1 and was attributable to 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 report of Sor beforehand renting from the corporate, Lockridge stated.
Stephen Sor stated he was shocked when Weng Sor confirmed up in Brooklyn in the midst of the evening a couple of week in the past. He stated they didn’t communicate usually 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 accordance with court docket 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 amenities till he was discovered competent to face fees, court docket information present. The information don’t checklist a attainable analysis, however observe 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 choose 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”