Driver strikes, injures 8 people on sidewalk blocks from Times Square while trying to escape police
NEW YORK -- A driver trying to escape police struck and injured eight people on a sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan overnight Sunday.
Cellphone video shows the out-of-control Mercedes trying to flee NYPD officers, who eventually surrounded the car near West 34th Street and Ninth Avenue.
The driver crashed into an outdoor dining shed at Chirp, a Peruvian restaurant, then backed up and rammed into another car before officers swarmed.
"That's when the cops just mob the car and stop the guy from doing more damage," said Boris Torres, who owns the restaurant.
The chase started at around 1:30 a.m. Monday when police tried to intervene during an argument on the corner of 33rd and Seventh.
According to police, the 44-year-old man sped away as the officers approached. He struck a number of cars and people while driving the wrong way on 34th Street and eventually crashed on the sidewalk, they said.
A police officer and a 39-year-old woman who was pinned under a food truck were among the injured.
"It's crazy. This is not the first time that something happened on New Year's here. It happened to us maybe like three years ago. Not a car, but somebody robbed multiple stores," said Torres, who was relieved to hear no one was seriously hurt in Monday's crash.
Torres said thieves stole his cash register on a past New Year's Day. This time, his restaurant's awning was destroyed and he's unsure when the Department of Buildings will let him reopen.
"I don't know if it's going to be my insurance or the insurance of the car. I gotta go up to the precinct to get the report," he said.
The driver was arrested and taken to Bellevue Hospital in critical condition. Charges were pending.