WOODLAND PARK, N.J. – At least six people were injured after a car drove into a crowd of protesters in Manhattan on Friday, according to the New York City Police Department.
The department confirmed on social media that investigation is ongoing into the incident that occurred around 4 p.m. at the intersection of Third Avenue and E. 39th Street.
The New York Fire Department says six people were taken by ambulance to local hospitals. Police and fire officials said the injuries didn’t appear to be life-threatening.
One video shows the car stopped at the intersection before accelerating into the area of the protest, where people had been standing in the street. Another video shows a person that appears to be the driver being taken into police custody.
The protestors were on hand to raise awareness and bring attention to an ongoing hunger strike by ICE detainees at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack. Protests have occurred outside that facility every day for about two weeks.
On Friday, video emerged of an altercation between protestors and sheriff’s officers on River Street. Footage shows one man being arrested. A group of five officers appear to push the man back toward the parking lot, into the barricades knocking them down. The man does not appear to struggle or resist as four officers subdue him.
A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said last month that nine detainees at the jail had stopped eating meals, but would not say for how long.
A detainee in ICE custody is deemed to be in hunger strike status if they refuse nine consecutive facility-provided meals. That also applies even if a person eats food purchased from the commissary during that period of time, according to information on the ICE website.
The circumstances of what caused the car to go into the protest were unclear. The car’s windshield was smashed by the impact, pictures and video showed.
A participant in the protest, Sofia Vickerman, of Denver, Colorado, told the Associated Press that when the car hit the crowd it tossed people and a bicycle in the air.
“I hear people screaming in the front, I look behind me, the woman is plowing through,” she said. “I see bodies flying.”
Images posted online showed a heavy police presence as authorities blocked off the area, and one person being loaded into a stretcher.
Contributing: The Associated Press
