Three people were killed and at least nine others injured, four critically, when a pickup truck drove into a group celebrating the Fourth of July holiday in New York City, authorities said.
Police have identified 44-year-old Daniel Hyden, of New Jersey, as the driver behind the deadly collision. Hyden was allegedly driving a gray Ford F-150 that came down a street “at a high rate of speed” shortly before 9pm on Thursday. The truck went through an intersection and past a stop sign, drove on to the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York police department chief, said during a news conference.
He has been charged with driving under the influence and driving without a valid license, CBS News reported.
Hyden reportedly works as a substance abuse counselor in New York and serves as a program director for three residential programs in Manhattan, according to a public LinkedIn page that matches Hyden’s arrest mugshot and an NBC News report.
“My mission is to use my lifelong experience with addiction to teach addicts how to save themselves and achieve long term recovery,” Hyden wrote on LinkedIn.
Hyden also wrote a book titled The Sober Addict: A Guide on How to Be Functional With the Dysfunctional Disease of Addiction, according to his LinkedIn.
Three victims were pronounced dead, police said. Two victims have been identified as 59-year-old Lucille Pinkney and 38-year-old Herman Pinkney, CBS reported. The third victim’s name has not been released, but authorities confirmed the victim is a woman in her 40s, ABC News reported.
The injured included four people who were in critical condition, three who were seriously injured and two with minor injuries, said Michael Meyers, New York City fire department assistant chief.
A mother and her two young children were hospitalized, ABC reported. Their conditions are not known.
The first fire department crew to arrive at the scene found the pickup truck on top of four of the victims and firefighters worked to quickly extricate them before emergency medical personnel began treatment, Meyers said.
Investigators do not believe the crash was an act of terrorism, said Maddrey and Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, in the news briefing at the scene.
“We had a tragic incident that took place here,” Adams said. “A driver drove into a crowd of people who were actually just celebrating like so many New Yorkers and Americans are doing right now.”
Bystanders of the horrific scene described seeing the driver barrel into groups who were barbecuing on the sidewalk to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday celebrating US independence from British colonialism.
“You hear everyone’s screaming, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop, slow down.’ And he didn’t stop. He wasn’t able to stop,” Shi Jackson, 39, said to the New York Times.
Jackson was grilling across the street from the accident. “I remember seeing small children on stretchers,” she told the newspaper.
Meanwhile, dozens across the US were injured in other Fourth of July incidents and there were additional deaths from gun violence.
Police in California said two people were killed and three others injured in Independence Day violence with a deadly weapon in Huntington Beach, known as Surf City, USA.
A city spokeswoman says the attack broke out in a crowded area near downtown less than two hours after fireworks ended. A suspect has been arrested, but there were no other details early Friday afternoon.
Also in California, 80-year-old Machete actor Danny Trejo reportedly got into a fight at a parade in Los Angeles’ Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood, according to videos published by TMZ and circulating on social media.
In the clips, Trejo appeared to get out of a car that was struck by a water balloon, threw a punch as well as a lawn chair during the ensuing fight, and was briefly knocked to the ground, as People and other outlets reported.
In Pennsylvania, one person, a 19-year-old man, was killed and seven injured during a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia, the Associated Press reported.
And 14 people in Chicago were shot in two separate incidents early Friday. Eight people were wounded during a shooting in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood, while six people were shot and injured in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the city’s west side.
In Provo, Utah, at least six people were hospitalized after a fireworks display at an event for a crowd of about 45,000 malfunctioned and swerved into onlookers.
The Associated Press contributed reporting