The alleged drunk driver behind the July 4 carnage that left three people at a barbecue dead and six others injured faced the press and heartbroken members of the victims’ families Friday.
According to police sources, Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, is responsible for getting behind the wheel of his pickup truck while intoxicated before plowing into the Lower East Side’s Corlears Hook Park near Water Street and Cherry Street at around 8:55 p.m. on July 4, just as locals were enjoying a barbecue.
“Officers who arrived on the scene did smell some alcohol,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffery Maddrey said. “Right now, we do not feel this is a terrorism-related event. We do believe alcohol played a role in this.”
Ironically, Hyden works as a substance abuse counselor; according to his Facebook page is the author of a book called, “Sober Addict.”
Eyewitnesses and police sources say Hyden was pulled out of his truck by revelers, immediately following the crash and beaten to a bloody pulp.
On Friday, enraged Lower East Side residents gathered outside the 7th Precinct, where Hyden had been detained and charged, waiting for him to come out in handcuffs. Some fumed with angers, while others paced back and forth from the tension.
Finally, the moment came when Hyden — still wearing a t-shirt stained with his own blood — made the perp walk before media members, escorted by detectives en route to his arraignment in New York County Criminal Court.
As soon as he emerged from the 7th Precinct stationhouse, his head hanging down, onlookers unleashed their despair.
“You killed my aunt! You f**king bast**d,” one woman shouted as another person held her back when she began to cry out in pain.
Others screamed, “I hope you die!”
As tears streamed down another woman’s face, she exclaimed that her sister and nephew were among the victims killed on July 4.
“Remember their names, you killed them for nothing! Lucille and Hernan Pinkney. You f**cking bast**d you don’t deserve air,” the woman, who did not want to share her name said.
“She has a son at home with no mother,” the woman added. “He is at home by himself without his mother. He took two dozen families in one shot.”
Police identified two of the victims of the deadly incident as Lucille Pinkney, 59, and Hernan Pickney, 38; the third victim’s identity remains withheld, pending proper family notification.
Thus far, Hyden has been charged with eight counts of assault while recklessly causing serious injury with a weapon; aggravated vehicular homicide; driving while intoxicated, and second-degree aggravated unlicensed operator/motor vehicle.
On the same day Hyden was charged and arraigned, the 7th Precinct also took in evidence of the carnage from the deadly incident — including lawn chairs, a bicycle and children’s scooters.
