Two people were killed and seven others were injured after an apparently impaired driver of a pickup truck plowed into a crowd of people celebrating July 4 in a park on the Lower East Side, the authorities said.
Several of the injured were transported to hospitals, two of them in critical condition, the authorities said at a news conference on Thursday night. A police spokesman confirmed by phone that one person had been taken into custody.
Speaking at the news conference, Mayor Eric Adams of New York said that though investigations were preliminary, the incident did not appear to be “terrorist related.”
Police said that just before 9 p.m., a Ford F-150 driving eastbound at high speed down Water Street sped through a stop sign, up onto the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park, where a crowd of people were celebrating the holiday.
“We do believe that alcohol had played a role in this, but we are investigating,” Chief Jeffrey B. Maddrey of the New York City Police Department said at the news conference. He said that two of those injured had been confirmed dead upon arrival at the hospital.
Of the seven others, two were in critical condition and three were seriously injured, Chief Michael V. Meyers of the New York City Fire Department said at the news conference.
Firefighters had arrived at the scene in less than four minutes, he said, where they found “a pickup truck on top of four victims.” They used airbags and floor jacks to lift the truck off them, he said. Chief Meyers did not describe the nature of their injuries.
Among those struck was a mother and her two young children, the police said.
