Six pedestrians were struck by a vehicle during a BLM protest against ICE detentions in Midtown Manhattan on Friday afternoon, and the female driver has been taken into custody, police said.
The crash happened at the intersection of 39th Street and Third Avenue just after 4 p.m. where the protesters had gathered, cops said.
The Black Lives Matter group was marching “in solidarity” with those being held on ICE detainers at the Bergen County Jail and currently on a hunger strike, according to a social-media feed from the demonstration.
A man in a live stream from the march claimed that a black BMW “plowed through… a group of protesters” and that cops detained two people who chased after the car.
“A car just ran through a group of protesters, tossing people into the air. … I saw individuals that were hit with the car flying up and over it, the windshield is totally cracked,” says the man, Mark Apolloa.
Police did not know if the protesters were among those injured or had been targeted. The victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries, cops said.
The female driver stopped a short distance away and was taken into custody, law-enforcement sources said.
The Jersey prisoners on hunger strike are protesting the conditions under which they are kept, among other things, according to Patch.
They were picked up by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
After Friday’s protest crash in Manhattan, at least two dozen cops flooded the intersection and surrounded an injured person being treated by EMS, according to video posted to social media.
At one point, police pulled a person with a sign away from the injured pedestrian and pushed them off — causing a stand-off between cops and a group.
The NYPD is asking drivers to avoid the area.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona
