NEW YORK (Reuters) – One of the nine people struck by a man driving a U-Haul truck in New York City has died from his injuries, police said Tuesday.
The driver has been accused of deliberately plowing into pedestrians and bike riders in multiple locations in Monday’s rampage through Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge and Sunset Park neighborhoods before police were able to pin his vehicle and arrest him several miles away from the scene of the attacks.
A surveillance video of part of the attack shows the truck speeding onto a sidewalk as a pedestrian leaps out its path, with a police car in pursuit.
One of the driver’s victims was a 44-year-old man who suffered head injuries and was declared dead at a nearby hospital, police said. His name has not been released by police. The other people hit, including a police officer, were not as badly hurt, police said.
The suspect is being held in a city jail and is expected to make his first appearance in court on Tuesday.
Local media have identified the suspect as Weng Sor, who is in his early 60s. Police declined to confirm the name with charges still pending.
His son, Stephen Sor, told the Associated Press in an interview outside his Brooklyn home that his father had struggled with mental illness and sometimes did not take his medications. The son said his father had been living in Las Vegas and was surprised when he appeared in New York City last week.
The truck was rented in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 1 and was due to be returned there on March 3, the New York Times reported.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
