Feb. 13, 2023 At one point during the ensuing chase, he said, “Shoot me, I’m not stopping,” according to a police source.
By Harry Parker, Kerry Burke, Elizabeth Keogh, Rocco Parascandola, Leonard Greene Source New York Daily News (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A rampaging U-Haul driver struck eight people including a police officer and sent other pedestrians running for their lives as he led cops on a wild chase through Brooklyn on Monday, according to police.
Cops tried to pull the 62-year-old driver over at 10:49 a.m. near Fifth Ave. and 75th St. in Bay Ridge, but he refused to stop, sources said.
The driver had rammed into a person riding an e-bike near the intersection, sending the individual to the hospital in critical condition, sources said.
At one point during the ensuing chase, he said, “Shoot me, I’m not stopping,” according to a police source.
Cops tailed him to 72nd St. and Third Ave., where surveillance video showed him slamming into a moped driver before mounting a sidewalk.
In a video posted online from that location, a pedestrian can be seen slowly walking between curbside trees and storefronts when suddenly, the U-Haul driver barrels in his direction.
The shocked pedestrian, who appeared to be looking at his phone, stepped toward the storefront and then dove toward the street, barely avoiding being mowed down — and the police car that also jumped the sidewalk in close pursuit.
“It was very fast — the truck and the police were following him,” said Kida Rexhepi, 41, who owns a business along the street. “He saw the truck coming and he fell on the other side. The car came very close to the store. It was going so fast. I’m like, ‘What happened?’”
The pedestrian, a man in his 60s, escaped with an injured knee. He is a driver at a neighborhood car service.
“He was able to escape, thank God. He’s OK,” said the man’s boss. “I see a big bang! I came outside. I saw his pants was ripped. It’s not real.”
At some point while terrorizing the neighborhood, the driver slammed into another e-bike rider at Bay Ridge Parkway and Seventh Ave., sources said.
As he barreled down the neighborhood’s Fifth Ave. and made a turn onto Senator St., he ran into a delivery person on a bike just after 11 a.m., according to witnesses.
“He was speeding,” said a store manager at the corner of the intersection. “When he turned, he just hit the guy on the bike and kept going.”
The manager recognized the victim as someone who made regular deliveries in the community.
“He was face up, hurt bad,” said the shaken manager.
In neighboring Dyker Heights, the driver hit another e-bicyclist at Bay Ridge Parkway and 12th Ave., sources said.
At some point, the driver hit a man believed to be in his 30s on Fourth Ave. near 54th St. in Sunset Park, cops said. That victim was rushed by medics to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in critical condition.
Police chased the driver as he got on the Gowanus Expressway, arresting him nearly five miles away oby the mouth of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in Red Hook.
The suspect got off at the Hamilton Avenue exit at the very start of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, officials said. A highway officer was able to force him to a stop. An aviation unit also tracked him during the chase, police said.
Cops identified the driver as Weng Sor and say he was born in Malaysia and is a U.S. citizen. He was sentenced to one to three years in a Nevada prison for stabbing his brother in Las Vegas in 2015, records show.
It appears he was living out of the U-Haul, which contained boxes, clothes and other items.
The U-Haul was rented Feb. 1 out of West Palm Beach, Fla., according to U-Haul. It was due back March 3 at the same location.
In all, six men and a woman were injured in addition to the police officer.
Two of the injuries were critical, two were serious and four were minor, according to Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
“At this time we have no indication there is any terrorism involvement in this incident.” she said, noting that the investigation is ongoing. “We are still constructing events.”
The van was not stolen, Sewell added.
She did not immediately address community concerns about a police car mounting the sidewalk in pursuit.
The NYPD Bomb Squad was called to search the U-Haul as a precaution, but no explosives were found.
Earlier this month, Sor received two summons on the Belt Parkway for speeding and for using a commercial vehicle on the parkway.
In a tweet, Gov. Kathy Hochul thanked the NYPD for their “swift response” following the violence.
“I am praying for everyone who was injured today,” she stated.
With News Wire Services