Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Reckless U-Haul truck driver kills one, injures 9 others

NBC
NYPD stopped the U-Haul truck and arrested the driver.

UPDATED Feb. 14, 2:30 p.m.

The driver of a U-Haul truck that killed one and injured 9 others in Brooklyn, NY has been identified as 62-year old Weng Sor.

One person has died after being hit by a U-Haul truck that also injured nine people, including a police officer, in a "violent rampage" Monday across Brooklyn, New York City police said.

The suspected driver's son said that he has a history of mental illness, according to his son.

"Very frequently he’ll choose to skip out on his medications and do something like this," Stephen Sor, 30, told the Associated Press in an interview outside his Brooklyn home Monday. "This isn’t the first time he’s been arrested. It’s not the first time he’s gone to jail."


"Based on interviews with family members and confirmed when interrogated by NYC Detective Bureau, we believe Mr. Sor was suffering from a mental health crisis at this time. There is no nexus to terrorism," NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig told reporters at a press conference today.

The NYPD said Sor is a resident of Las Vegas where he lives with his mom, but showed up at his ex-wife and son's home in Brooklyn earlier this month.

The NYPD said Sor has eight prior arrests, dating to 2002, including DUI, evading a police officer, battery, and resisting arrest.

Police responded to a report of a man recklessly driving a U-Haul truck in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn and striking pedestrians at 10:50 a.m., New York Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell told reporters.

Videos showed the truck plowing down people on a sidewalk, hitting a bicyclist and finally stopped by police near the entrance of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and took the driver into custody before noon.

The fatal victim was 44-year-old Ye YiJie. A surveillance video shows Ye's bicycle getting dragged under the speeding U-Haul truck.

"He tried to do his best to provide for the kids. It's one of the reasons why he picked this delivery job because it's so flexible, he can be there when the kids need him," said Ye's cousin Micahel Chen to CBS2's Christina Fan

Family members say Ye was a devoted single father to three teenagers, twin boys and a girl. He often pulled late-night hours, even collecting cans to supplement his income.


At the Tuesday press conference, NYPD said that suspect Weng Sor faces one count of second-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and potentially one more for injuring a police officer.

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