An SUV driver rolled through a crowd of anti-police brutality protesters and bicyclists during a confrontation that left one person injured in Midtown on Tuesday about 9:10 p.m., according to videos and officials.
The 35-year-old driver sped down a street near Times Square after a confrontation with protesters at 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue, according to an NYPD spokesperson and witness videos.
A video shows bicyclists blocking the SUV driver from going through the roadway to allow the protesters to continue. An organizer told the Post the roadway would've been blocked for about five minutes while marchers continued crosstown to Bryant Park.
A protester said through a megaphone, "Do you have to go this way sir? Sir?" according to one video. Other protesters are heard in the video saying they should "pop" the vehicle's tires.
When the driver starts to drive away, another person yells, "Watch out!"
Someone in an MTA uniform appeared to be in the passenger seat with the driver.
The NYPD's account says the driver approached the intersection and was surrounded by the group of pedestrians, who banged on the outside of the vehicle. They stopped him from moving forward with their bicycles, according to the police spokesperson, who also claimed protesters placed bikes "underneath" the vehicle.
A witness tells us about 100 people were at 42nd Street about 50 feet from the group of bicyclists blocking off the intersection after an evening of marching and "successfully redirecting traffic all night" to make space for protesters to demonstrate.
But during this incident, the SUV driver continued straight towards the bike line instead of turning, the witness told us.
"Organizers tried to get him to back up," the witness said. "At now point was the car surrounded ... the safe option would be to back up and turn."
The driver, in a black Dodge Durango, then speeds away down a roadway near Times Square.
Four bikes were strewn throughout the block, and other cyclists and pedestrians try to catch up with him.
Witnesses screamed, yelling out "Oh my God!"
The driver was taken into custody, but ultimately avoided arrest. The NYPD did not release his name since he was not arrested and charged.
"I wasn't at the head of the march, but I heard folks from our bike line screaming, then saw the car barreling towards us," said another protester. "I screamed out for folks to get out of the road, and then pulled out my phone trying to film license plates."
A family with a toddler was near the incident, and the protester saw the mother have to explain to her child what had just happened. "It's literally impossible to state how truly peaceful this march was," they said.
One person was transported by ambulance to NYU Langone after EMS responded to the intersection for calls about a pedestrian hit, according to photos and the FDNY.
"This video is extremely troubling," Public Advocate Jumaane Williams wrote in a tweet. "Our office is working to get more information."
On Monday evening, another driver in Huntington, New York hit and injured two protesters. He was arrested and charged with third degree assault, ABC7 reported.
And on Saturday, a protester was killed after a driver plowed through a police barricade and into demonstrators who were marching on a freeway. Another person was seriously injured.
Across the nation, there have been 66 incidents in which drivers use their cars as weapons since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis May 25th, a researcher at the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at University of Chicago, Ari E. Weil, told the Times. Police were behind the wheel in seven of them, including two in NYC during protests in Brooklyn on May 30th.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea as well as Mayor Bill de Blasio have defended those officers. During a recent hearing on police misconduct at protests, Shea said the portrayal of officers driving into protesters wasn't "fair" because the officers' lives were in danger.
