Truck ‘rampage’ injures 8 in New York City

Driver has history of violence and mental illness, his son says.

NEW YORK — A man driving a U-Haul truck swerved onto sidewalks and plowed into scooter riders Monday in New York City, injuring several people before leading police on a chase for miles through Brooklyn that ended with the careening vehicle being pinned against a building.

At least eight people were hurt, two critically.

The driver was arrested. His son identified him as Weng Sor, 62, a troubled man with a history of violence and stints behind bars.

New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell described the driver’s behavior as a “violent rampage” but said there was no evidence of “terrorism involvement.”

The truck sped through the Bay Ridge neighborhood before police stopped it more than three miles away, near the entrance to a tunnel leading from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Weng Sor’s son, Stephen Sor, 30, told the Associated Press that his father had a history of mental illness and, until recently, was living in Las Vegas.

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

The first report of a truck crashing into pedestrians and cyclists came at 10:30 a.m., police said, and other reports followed as the vehicle moved through a busy section of Brooklyn.

Aerial video from news helicopters showed the truck on a sidewalk after the chase, its path blocked by a police cruiser.

Authorities examined the vehicle to make sure it didn’t contain explosives.

Sewell said a police officer who had responded to the incident was among the injured.