Home Depot is working with the New York Police Department after a suspect allegedly drove one of its trucks onto a bike path in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the retailer told Fortune. The attack killed at least eight people and injured a dozen more in what authorities are treating as a terrorist attack.
After responding to reports of a shooting near New York’s Tribeca neighborhood shortly after 3 p.m. E.T., police shot and took a 29-year-old man into custody, the NYPD said. The suspect drove the truck up a protected bike and pedestrian pathway along the Hudson River and “struck multiple people on the path,” collided with another car and “exited the vehicle displaying imitation firearms” before being shot, the NYPD said.
Witnesses described seeing a pickup truck emblazoned with the Home Depot logo mow down pedestrians and cyclists before its driver emerged with a gun. A Home Depot truck, with its front end badly smashed in, remained at the scene in the middle of New York’s West Side highway.
“This is a Home Depot rental truck,” a spokesperson for the home improvement company confirmed. “We’ll be cooperating with authorities in their investigation.”
The NYPD later confirmed that the damaged pickup truck was the vehicle used in the attack.
At approximately 3:05pm a 29 y/o male drove a rented Home Depot truck onto the bike/pedestrian path at West St/Houston St driving south.
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) October 31, 2017
Little is known about the identity of the attacker so far, but because the truck was rented, the suspect was not likely an employee of Home Depot. The New York Police Department declined to say where the Home Depot truck was rented.
https://twitter.com/MadisonMills22/status/925456702094397442
https://t.co/XR9h8K8ulL Lower Manhattan NYC several ppl injured, 1 dead & one in custody.
— 🌴Kali Kym Allen🌞 (@kalikymmy) October 31, 2017
Footage posted by witnesses on social media showed at least three people lying on the paved bike path along the West Side highway, their bicycles mangled. The NYPD said the suspect was in the hospital and there was no remaining threat to public safety, adding that New York City’s annual Halloween parade would continue as planned on Tuesday evening.
