Driver Charged With Plowing Into Chinatown Crowd, Killing 1: NYPD

CHINATOWN, NY — Police arrested a 70-year-old man who killed one and injured six after he accidentally plowed his minivan into a fruit stand on Canal Street Monday night, police said.

Henry Herman, of Monroe, New York, was trying to park his 2015 Toyota Sienna at 6:47 p.m. when he mistakenly hit the gas, sped in reverse down Forsyth Street and smashed into a crowd on the busy Chinatown thoroughfare, authorities said.

The car plowed through the pedestrians and slammed into a retaining wall of a ramp for the Manhattan Bridge.

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Emergency responders rushed to the chaotic scene and found 56-year-old Chun Deng Zhang of Elmhurst, Queens dead and six others injured. The victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital where two remain in critical condition, two suffered serious injuries and two were treated for minor wounds and released, authorities said.

Herman remained on the scene and had no alcohol in his system. He and a female passenger in the car were not injured during the crash, police said.

Herman was released after authorities charged him with seven counts of failure to yield to a pedestrian and single counts of failure to exercise due care, unsafe backing of vehicle and driving on a sidewalk.

An investigation by the NYPD's Highway Patrol Collision squad is ongoing.

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