New York – Breaking news update 4:45 p.m. ET
An NYPD official reported that a truck hit several people in a bike path and killed six people.
It was added that the suspect was in a Home Depot rental truck when he climbed the curb and started his rampage. This happened at West Houston Street, and he continued driving south on the West Street bike path on west side of West Side Highway.
In the end, the driver had a collision with a school bus, and while four people were injured, they only sustained minor injuries. The official added that the truck was disabled in this crash and if that didn’t happen he might have continued his rampage.
Info from 4:36 p.m. ET
Two senior law enforcement officials from the New York Department stated that the suspect drove his truck on West Side Highway bike path for several blocks on Tuesday afternoon and during that he killed six people. This carnage happened on the bike path for several blocks on the lower west side of Manhattan.
After the final crash, the suspect threatened police with imitation firearms, and he was then shot by the officers. At this moment we have the info that the driver is in custody, and that he was taken to the hospital. The NYPD representative said that they didn’t rule out this as a terrorist act.
One of the tweets from NYPD suggested that there are many injured people and even several killed. This was described by officials as a deliberate act.
It was stated that no others are being sought and added that a large number of emergency personnel will be dispatched to the lower west side of Manhattan. Soon after this unfortunate event occurred, it was reported that many spectators were filming with their cameras and smartphones behind the police lines. This and destroyed white Home Depot truck with the wrecked front end can be seen in the news footage.
Both New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo are on the way to the scene.
Here you can see the destroyed pickup in Manhattan close to the scene. Also, there are many bikes all over the path where the suspect drove. This image shows the West Side Highway and the Hudson River and medics that are doing their best to help out those who were injured.
The assistant real estate manager for District Council 37, Michael Corbin, was outside of offices and helped a woman that slipped and fell during this incident. Here is what he stated: “The first responder to the event was a counterterrorism officer. We were attending to the victim, getting her onto a stretcher and, at that moment, we heard gunshots. I recalled hearing five gunshots in quick succession and immediately the officer … left to investigate the situation from the direction we heard the noise coming from.”
Since this is a quite busy part of the city there were many eyewitnesses and here is what Ramon Cruz said: “What I saw was that the driver — he didn’t look like he was bleeding. He was dragging his foot. He looks frustrated, panicked, confused. People are running past me, saying, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.” I didn’t see any gun. It was a white pickup truck. He looked pretty bad without bleeding or anything like that. I didn’t see him hit anybody. All I heard was the impact of a crash.”
https://twitter.com/el_dorado91/status/925442583760846848
One of the Twitter users added a photo showing a person lying on the ground near West & Chambers Streets in Manhattan. This was the route that the suspect took while driving a rental truck.
