A motorist hit several people on Friday afternoon in downtown Manhattan, New York, where a demonstration was marching against the detention of undocumented migrants.
Several injured were transported to different hospitals in the metropolis, New York police told AFP. “The injuries do not appear to be life-threatening” for the victims, the spokesperson said.
The incident took place shortly after 4 p.m. (10 p.m. KST), when around 50 demonstrators were at the crossroads of 39th Street and 3rd Avenue. A dark BMW walked straight into the procession. Witnesses assured that the driver had first slowed down, blocked by several people, before accelerating deliberately. “I tried to slow the car down,” said Angel Rivera, a protester. “She slowed down a bit… and left. I dived to the side. “I saw people being thrown in the air,” said Joey, a protester who refused to release his last name. “It was totally intentional”.
The police nevertheless believe that it is “too early to say whether (it was) an intentional act or an accident”. The driver remained on the scene after the incident and was arrested without difficulty by the police who were securing the demonstration.
The demonstrators were protesting against the conditions of detention of undocumented migrants arrested by the immigration services (ICE), imprisoned in particular in Hackensack, New Jersey, where several of them went on hunger strike.
The 52-year-old driver was in police custody Friday night for questioning. Neither his identity nor that of his passenger, aged 29, has been revealed.
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Another woman was taken into custody. Participating in the demonstration, she wanted to prevent emergency services from helping one of the victims of the collision. She is expected to face a charge of obstructing government administration, police said.
In recent months in the United States, the numerous demonstrations for the Black Lives Matter movement to denounce police violence or within the framework of the presidential election, have given rise to several similar incidents.
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