A woman is dead and 22 other people injured after a car sped on to a pavement in New York City's Times Square, the fire department says.
The 26-year-old driver, a US Navy veteran and US citizen, is in custody.
"There is no indication that this was an act of terrorism," said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The maroon Honda jumped the kerb and travelled for three blocks before crashing.
Photos showed the sedan partially on its side on the pavement with smoke and flames spewing from the bonnet.

The crash follows recent deadly car-ramming attacks in London, Berlin and the French city of Nice.

The FBI is investigating the incident at the Midtown Manhattan tourist venue, but so far officials say there is no terror link.
NYPD said the suspect, Richard Rojas, is a Bronx resident who was arrested in 2008 and 2015 for drunk driving.

Scenes of chaos - Nada Tawfik, BBC News, New York
It's a scene that immediately makes New Yorkers fear the worst.
A car driving out of control and ploughing into pedestrians in Times Square, the main tourist site of all places. Eyewitnesses have described scenes of initial chaos - people running and screaming.
It's doesn't sound like an accident given the deadly, and similar incidents overseas committed by alleged Islamic State group sympathisers. But the New York police department believes this is not terror related.
Still, they are reinforcing key sites in New York out of an abundance of caution, and more likely, to reassure New Yorkers.

"It is believed to be an isolated incident, it remains under investigation," the New York Police Department said on Twitter.
City authorities said they would nevertheless deploy extra police from anti-terror units to key locations around the city as a precaution.
The vehicle jumped the kerb at 45th Street and Broadway at 1155 local time (1655 GMT) and drove at high speed before crashing into a pole.

Witness Annie Donahey, 24, told the New York Times: "It was going at a fast rate of speed and to me it looked it was trying to hit as many people as possible.
"People were trying to jump out of the way."

Photos from the scene showed casualties strewn across the walkway.
One person was covered with a white cloth.
Among those hurt, four were in critical condition and three sustained serious injuries, according to the fire department.
The department said 15 other victims suffered less serious injuries.

Police said an 18-year-old woman died and her 13-year-old sister was among the injured.
"People were being hit and rolling off the car," said witness Josh Duboff, who jumped out of the way to avoid being struck.
Twitter user Michael Rickerby wrote: "just witnessed a car running people over in times square. scariest moment of my life. what is wrong with some people?!"

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement the event was "nothing short of horrific".
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump had been informed about the incident.

Times Square was the target of an attempted attack in May 2010 when a Pakistani immigrant planted a car bomb at an intersection.
The device failed to detonate and he was arrested shortly after boarding a flight to the Middle East.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Drunk driving in the middle of the day? I think there is a different motive.

 feeder wrote:
How are they ruling out terrorism, I wonder?

 jasper76 wrote:

 feeder wrote:
How are they ruling out terrorism, I wonder?

I heard on the radio that the driver had a history of DUIs.

tneva82 wrote:
Seems the guy is now charged in murder. Is murder charge same in US as in Finland ie premeditatdrunk and n which case this wouldn't seem to be just drunken driving.

Of course maybe in US murder charge can be applied without premeditation.

 CptJake wrote:
Video of the incident is horrific, looks very intentional.

 Ahtman wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
Video of the incident is horrific, looks very intentional.

Apparently he stated he wanted to try and kill as many as he could.

 djones520 wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
Video of the incident is horrific, looks very intentional.

Apparently he stated he wanted to try and kill as many as he could.

And also wanted the cops to kill him.

Sounds like another failure of our mental health system.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
Video of the incident is horrific, looks very intentional.

Apparently he stated he wanted to try and kill as many as he could.

And also wanted the cops to kill him.

Sounds like another failure of our mental health system.

It's only a failure if they knew about it and did nothing.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:

 djones520 wrote:

 Ahtman wrote:

 CptJake wrote:
Video of the incident is horrific, looks very intentional.

Apparently he stated he wanted to try and kill as many as he could.

And also wanted the cops to kill him.

Sounds like another failure of our mental health system.

It's only a failure if they knew about it and did nothing.

Or not knowing could be part of the failure.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Are we really going to hold an institution accountable for the actions of an individual that probably wasn't looking for help?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Are we really going to hold an institution accountable for the actions of an individual that probably wasn't looking for help?

I'm not as familiar with the US mental health system, but I think in general people not wanting to seek help is part of the problem. Obviously you can't help people who don't want to be helped, but if the system is such that people who possibly do want help don't seek it through the mental health system in the first place, don't you think that's a bit of a flaw?

 Grey Templar wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Are we really going to hold an institution accountable for the actions of an individual that probably wasn't looking for help?

I'm not as familiar with the US mental health system, but I think in general people not wanting to seek help is part of the problem. Obviously you can't help people who don't want to be helped, but if the system is such that people who possibly do want help don't seek it through the mental health system in the first place, don't you think that's a bit of a flaw?

The issue is you can't treat a problem nobody, including the unstable individual, knows nothing about. People in need of mental help by definition are not thinking rationally, thus they are unlikely to come to the conclusion that they need help. And we can't exactly require everybody to undergo forced mental evaluations on a regular basis.

Mental issues are, by their very nature, not something you can detect till the person shows signs. At which point it may be too late to prevent them from causing harm to themselves or others.

 Grey Templar wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Seems the guy is now charged in murder. Is murder charge same in US as in Finland ie premeditatdrunk and n which case this wouldn't seem to be just drunken driving.

Of course maybe in US murder charge can be applied without premeditation.

There are multiple types of murder, not just premeditated.

Manslaughter is the lowest form. Accidental or negligent cause of death.

tneva82 wrote:
One learns every day. Guess one can't even trust term "murder" to mean same thing everywhere!

States have adopted several different schemes for classifying murders by degree. The most common separates murder into two degrees, and treats voluntary and involuntary manslaughter as separate crimes that do not constitute murder.

- First-degree murder: any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with malice aforethought. Felony murder is typically first-degree.[12]

- Second-degree murder: any intentional murder with malice aforethought, but is not premeditated or planned.[13]

- Voluntary manslaughter: (also referred to as third-degree murder), sometimes called a crime of passion murder, is any intentional killing that involves no prior intent to kill, and which was committed under such circumstances that would "cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed". Both this and second-degree murder are committed on the spot under a spur-of-the-moment choice, but the two differ in the magnitude of the circumstances surrounding the crime. For example, a bar fight that results in death would ordinarily constitute second-degree murder. If that same bar fight stemmed from a discovery of infidelity, however, it may be mitigated to voluntary manslaughter.[14]

- Involuntary manslaughter: (sometimes referred to as fourth-degree murder), a killing that stems from a lack of intention to cause death but involving an intentional, or negligent, act leading to death. A drunk driving-related death is typically involuntary manslaughter (see also vehicular homicide, causing death by dangerous driving, gross negligence manslaughter and causing death by criminal negligence for international equivalents). Note that the "unintentional" element here refers to the lack of intent to bring about the death. All three crimes above feature an intent to kill, whereas involuntary manslaughter is "unintentional", because the killer did not intend for a death to result from their intentional actions. If there is a presence of intention it relates only to the intent to cause a violent act which brings about the death, but not an intention to bring about the death itself.[15]

tneva82 wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Seems the guy is now charged in murder. Is murder charge same in US as in Finland ie premeditatdrunk and n which case this wouldn't seem to be just drunken driving.

Of course maybe in US murder charge can be applied without premeditation.

There are multiple types of murder, not just premeditated.

Manslaughter is the lowest form. Accidental or negligent cause of death.

Interesting. In Finland you do not get charged for murder just by killing somebody(there's obviously other charges for other type of killings). Here killing is only murder if it's premeditated.

Just for example from todays news article I read how women was sentenced for other level of killing but not murder after killing her boyfriend with chainsaw(which aparantely was there due to recent renowation) while he was tied up and blindfolded. While she being guilty was in no doubt prosecutor could not prove she had premeditated the act and it wasn't just on the spot decision. Therefore she wasn't found guilty of murder(guilty of killing yes for which she got 12.5 year sentence).

One learns every day. Guess one can't even trust term "murder" to mean same thing everywhere!

 Grey Templar wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Seems the guy is now charged in murder. Is murder charge same in US as in Finland ie premeditatdrunk and n which case this wouldn't seem to be just drunken driving.

Of course maybe in US murder charge can be applied without premeditation.

There are multiple types of murder, not just premeditated.

Manslaughter is the lowest form. Accidental or negligent cause of death.

Interesting. In Finland you do not get charged for murder just by killing somebody(there's obviously other charges for other type of killings). Here killing is only murder if it's premeditated.

Just for example from todays news article I read how women was sentenced for other level of killing but not murder after killing her boyfriend with chainsaw(which aparantely was there due to recent renowation) while he was tied up and blindfolded. While she being guilty was in no doubt prosecutor could not prove she had premeditated the act and it wasn't just on the spot decision. Therefore she wasn't found guilty of murder(guilty of killing yes for which she got 12.5 year sentence).

One learns every day. Guess one can't even trust term "murder" to mean same thing everywhere!

You see, in the States that would have been an easy charge of 2nd degree murder. That's why we have levels of homicide. Because there are different levels of guilt as far as the law is concerned.


There are a total of 4 levels regarding the non-justified killing of another human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_(United_States_law)
First-degree murder: any intentional murder that is willful and premeditated with malice aforethought. Felony murder is typically first-degree.[12]

Second-degree murder: any intentional murder with malice aforethought, but is not premeditated or planned.[13]

Voluntary manslaughter: (also referred to as third-degree murder), sometimes called a crime of passion murder, is any intentional killing that involves no prior intent to kill, and which was committed under such circumstances that would "cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed". Both this and second-degree murder are committed on the spot under a spur-of-the-moment choice, but the two differ in the magnitude of the circumstances surrounding the crime. For example, a bar fight that results in death would ordinarily constitute second-degree murder. If that same bar fight stemmed from a discovery of infidelity, however, it may be mitigated to voluntary manslaughter.[14]

Involuntary manslaughter: (sometimes referred to as fourth-degree murder), a killing that stems from a lack of intention to cause death but involving an intentional, or negligent, act leading to death. A drunk driving-related death is typically involuntary manslaughter (see also vehicular homicide, causing death by dangerous driving, gross negligence manslaughter and causing death by criminal negligence for international equivalents). Note that the "unintentional" element here refers to the lack of intent to bring about the death. All three crimes above feature an intent to kill, whereas involuntary manslaughter is "unintentional", because the killer did not intend for a death to result from their intentional actions. If there is a presence of intention it relates only to the intent to cause a violent act which brings about the death, but not an intention to bring about the death itself.[15]


The specific circumstances of the crime can result in the charges being upgraded or downgraded.

Like for example, driving your car into a crowd while drunk would normally be Involuntary manslaughter. But in extreme cases, like this one for instance, it can potentially be proven that there was some sort of malice and intention, made worse by intoxication, which could up a normally involuntary manslaughter charge up to 2nd degree murder.

If the guy had simply lost control of his vehicle due to being drunk and run into the crowd, the charge would only warrant Involuntary manslaughter. But being drunk, and while under the influence deliberately driving into the crowd with intent to cause harm will result in more serious charges.

tneva82 wrote:
Seems the guy is now charged in murder. Is murder charge same in US as in Finland ie premeditated? In which case this wouldn't seem to be just drunken driving.

Of course maybe in US murder charge can be applied without premeditation.