Parking dispute blamed after car slams into crowd on NYC sidewalk, killing 1

John Bacon | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Car slams into crowd after parking dispute Police in New York say a man drove into a group of people, killing one and leaving several others injured early Sunday morning. They believe the dispute was over parking. (Dec. 3)

One person was killed and seven others were wounded early Sunday after a car slammed onto a crowded sidewalk outside a New York City hookah bar following a knife attack, authorities and witnesses said.

Assistant Police Chief David Barrere appeared to eliminate terrorism as a motive for the mayhem, saying the incident was precipitated by a parking dispute in front of the XS Hookah Lounge in the Richmond Hill section of Queens.

Barrere said a driver jumped out of his car and stabbed two people in the torso. During the "ensuing dispute involving a group of people" outside the club, the white, Hyundai sedan then drove from the scene and mounted the sidewalk, he said.

One person was killed and at least one person was in critical condition from the crash, Barrere said.

Officers responded to the 911 call of an assault in progress at 4:30 a.m., police said on Twitter. One man was taken into custody, but his involvement in the events was not immediately clear.

More: Suspected terrorist careens into NYC bike path, kills 8 near World Trade Center

More: Times Square witnesses feared terrorism

The Daily News posted a brief video clip of the white Hyundai performing a U-turn onto the sidewalk and driving "at a high rate of speed." Seconds later, the video shows a silver Nissan SUV doing a U-turn on the street and blazing down the sidewalk behind the Sonata in apparent pursuit. The video clip does not show a crash.

A passing motorist, Ozzie Rogers, told the Daily News he saw a woman trying to hold back a combatant outside the bar, and he pulled over to get a closer look.

Moments later, he said, the car came crashing into the scene at about 50 mph.

“The girl is yelling ‘Stop, stop. No, no,’ when this car just comes from nowhere and hits the whole group,” Rogers said. “The bodies went flying. The car was going really fast.”

Witnesses told WCBS-TV that a group of people was leaving the bar when they saw a man beating up another man on the sidewalk. Several people were yelling for the attacker to stop when the witnesses say a car raced down the sidewalk and crashed into group, then fled.

“I saw a couple of kids, just fighting,” said Milagros Urbina, who lives near the scene. “Suddenly I just see the white car driving through the sidewalk. They were all screaming, it was crazy.”

Preliminary info on #Queens incident: At approx. 4:30am officers responded to a 911 call of assault in progress in a hookah lounge on Liberty Ave.

6 people were struck by a car & 2 people stabbed. One person is currently in custody. Investigation ongoing. ☎️ #800577TIPS w/info — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) December 3, 2017

Police said the investigation was continuing, but were quick to tamp down terrorism concerns. On Oct. 31, an Uzbekistan national in a rented pickup plowed through a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center memorial in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people and wounding a dozen more.

Sayfullo Saipov, 29, then emerged screaming in Arabic and pointing imitation guns before he was shot by police.

"This was an act of terror and a cowardly act of terror," Mayor de Blasio said after the Halloween day tragedy. “We will respond as we always do. We will be undeterred.”

In May, a Bronx man was accused of plowing his car onto a crowded Times Square sidewalk, killing an 18-year-old woman and injuring almost two dozen people. Police claimed Richard Rojas told investigators he had been smoking marijuana and PCP before the crash, and de Blasio said that crash was not a terror strike.