Trick-or-treaters were among the victims after a car mounted the sidewalk and plowed into a group of pedestrians in New York City, police said.
The driver told investigators he suffered a seizure moments before Saturday’s crash, according to a New York Police Department official briefed on the investigation. The man told police he had a history of seizures but hadn’t had one in a while before the crash, the official said.
Three people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in the collision in the Bronx, the NYPD said in a statement.
The driver of the car and three pedestrians, including two young girls, were taken to Jacobi Hospital, police said. The driver was in a stable condition, and the three other people were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The horrifying sequence of events unfolded just before 5 p.m. Saturday along Morris Park Avenue.
“There were families, kids trick or treating walking behind me,” eyewitness Kristina DeJesus told CNN affiliate WABC. “And all of a sudden, I heard the ‘boom’ and the car literally jumped over a parked car and flew into the gate, hitting a bunch of people.”
Police are still investigating exactly what happened and why.
They say a Dodge Charger, driven by a 52-year-old man, bumped another car and then careened onto the sidewalk and into the pedestrians. It ended up in the front yard of one of the homes on the street.
Witnesses reported a grisly scene in the aftermath of the collision, including severed body parts, according to WABC.
“I didn’t comprehend what I was seeing until I realized what I was seeing. I had to walk away,” said local resident John del Giudice.
All three of the dead lived nearby. Police identified them as Nyanna Aquil, the 10-year-old girl; Kristian Leka, a 24-year-old man, and Louis Perez, a 65-year-old man. The injured included a 3-year-old girl, a 9-year-old girl and 21-year-old woman.