A suspected drunk driver who plowed into a Fourth of July park celebration and killed three people reportedly worked as a substance abuse counselor.
Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, is accused of driving his pickup truck into a crowd at Corlears Hook Park in New York City’s Lower East Side on Thursday night.
Hyden allegedly drove his gray Ford F-150 onto a sidewalk and ran over a group who were barbecuing.
He struck 11 people and four of them were trapped under the truck, said the New York Police Department (NYPD). Two people were pronounced dead at the scene and a third victim died overnight.
The deceased have been identified as a 59-year-old woman, a 38-year-old man and another woman.
Victims who were injured range in age from 11 to 38. All are in stable condition at hospitals except for a 30-year-old woman who is in critical condition.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said it appeared that ‘the driver was under the influence’ as the people at the park were celebrating Independence Day ‘like so many New Yorkers and Americans are doing right now’.
Hyden was reportedly pulled out of his truck by revelers and beaten.
‘Responding officers who did arrive on the scene did smell some alcohol, but we are still in the process of doing testing,’ said NYPD chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey.
‘Right now, we do not feel this is a terrorism-related event. We do believe alcohol played a role in this.’
Hyden wrote a book to help people living with addiction, law enforcement sources told NBC New York on Friday.
His pen name DC Hyden shows as the author of the book, The Sober Addict: A Guide on How to Be Functional With the Dysfunctional Disease of Addiction, on Amazon.
It is ‘a practical guide on how to effectively live and cope with the dysfunctional, lifelong disease of addiction’, according to the description.
Hyden appeared for his perp walk on Friday wearing a T-shirt still stained with his blood.
He has been charged with eight counts of assault while causing serious injury with a weapon recklessly, driving while intoxicated, aggravated vehicular homicide and second-degree aggravated unlicensed operator/motor vehicle.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security on the day before Independence Day had warned that lone offenders could target ‘large-scale firework celebrations’ in places including New York City. The scene of the crime was a much smaller scale barbecue.
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