New York City police said one person was killed after a U-Haul truck hit him and nine people, including a police officer, were injured in a “violent rampage” in Brooklyn on Monday.
New York Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell told reporters that officers responded to reports of a man driving a U-Haul truck hitting pedestrians at 10:50 a.m. in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn.
Officers eventually stopped the vehicle near an entrance to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel and took the driver into custody before noon.
A police spokesman said one victim, a 44-year-old man, died. Eight other people, including a police officer, also came under the impact and were injured, police said. Their age is between 30 to 66.
“At this time, there is no connection to terrorism,” Sewell tweeted Monday evening.
Sewell has not released the name of the driver. Four senior law enforcement officials identified him as Vang Sor, 62, with a criminal record dating back to 2005 in Clark County, Nevada. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
The van had Arizona license plates, said two senior law enforcement officers briefed on the case.
Sewell said action is being taken at seven locations.
Seven of the injured were civilians, and one police officer was “undertaking police action,” he said. Officials said three of the injured were on mopeds, and at least one was a pedestrian, aged in his 30s.
Sewell said Monday evening that two of the injured were in stable condition and two were in critical condition. Earlier, officials said the condition of two was serious and two were serious.
Sewell insisted that “there is no indication that any terrorism is involved in this incident.”
Sor has an address in Brooklyn, as well as a previous address in Las Vegas.
His criminal record in Nevada includes a 2015 felony conviction and a citation last month for speeding over the traffic limit. In the 2015 case, he was found guilty and sentenced to one to three years in prison, records show. He was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.
New York City Council Member Justin Brannon, whose district includes Bay Ridge, tweeted, “We have no idea of the motives at this time but this was not an accident.”
Brannan later said that one of the victims was a married father of two, who was in a coma. “Please pray for him and keep his family in your thoughts tonight,” he wrote.
Gov. Cathy Hochul tweeted Monday afternoon that she had been informed and that her team was coordinating with the police. “I am praying for all who were injured in Brooklyn today,” she wrote.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was also briefed, tweeted his press secretary, Fabian Levy.
“While the suspect remains in custody, the NYPD is still investigating. There is no additional credible threat at this time,” Levy said.
Saifulo Saipov, 35, was convicted in January and faces the death penalty after killing eight people in a similar attack in 2017. Saipov drove a truck into a bike path on the West Side Highway, then told the FBI that he “felt good” about his actions.