Car rams through crowd gathered in Times Square to protest Daniel Prude's death
Protests in NYC and Rochester, New York after release of body cam footage; Laura Ingle reports.
The NYPD says it is investigating Thursday’s scary incident caught on video in which a car accelerated through a Times Square intersection scattering a group of Black Lives Matter protesters.
Detectives were planning to interview the occupants who were in the vehicle, a black Ford Taurus, and are said to have attended a small Trump rally in Duffy Square, according to reports Friday.
"We have a car traveling up 46th Street, stops at the light," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told FOX 5 NY Friday morning.
CAR DRIVES THROUGH BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS IN TIMES SQUARE
"Just at it hits that intersection, you have the group of protesters – roughly 200 protesters, fate would have it – move in that direction, down 46th Street. This is all captured on video. You have bicyclists block the car from moving. We have two people strike the car window, one with a punch and one banging it. You have the car speed away, very dangerous.”
Shea added, “We are real lucky we didn't have a vehicle collision with other cars."
NYPD SEEKS DRIVER WHO ASSAULTED 2 BRONX TRAFFIC AGENTS
The car is seen driving away after one of the officers closes the rear door for one of the passengers.
Fox 5 reported that officers had asked the driver to move the car through a route under the Marriot Hotel to avoid conflict with the protesters.
The driver ignored the request and instead drove into the crowd, the station reported.
A separate video posted on Twitter shows individuals climbing into the Taurus down the block as a large group of NYPD officers move in to the street and form a line apparently to keep protesters from the vehicle.
An NYPD spokesman told Fox News that it has received no reports of anyone being injured.
The NYPD squelched online rumors that the vehicle was an unmarked police vehicle.
“There is an ongoing investigation into an incident in Times Square involving a black Taurus sedan. This auto is NOT an NYPD vehicle,” police tweeted.
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The Black Lives Matter protesters were demonstrating over the death of 41-year-old Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in police custody in Rochester, N.Y., after a "spit sock" had been placed over his head.
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