From the New York Times, Aug. 30:
Hit and Runs Leave 1 Dead and 13 Injured
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 29 — A hit-and-run driver careered through San Francisco and nearby Fremont on Tuesday, mowing down pedestrians and bicyclists, leaving at least one person dead and injuring more than a dozen, some seriously.
The driver, who was apprehended in San Francisco, was identified by the Fremont police as a male in his late 20’s. His name was not released, but The Associated Press reported that motor vehicle records showed the vehicle was registered to Omeed A. Popal of Fremont.
The authorities said they did not know a motive for the attacks.
Sgt. Neville Gittens, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said terrorism had been ruled out. “The hits were intentional,” Sergeant Gittens said. “There were no regards as to who the suspect was hitting.”
The mayhem began just past noon in Fremont, about 35 miles southeast of here across San Francisco Bay, when the driver struck and killed a 54-year-old man walking in the bike lane of Fremont Boulevard, a major street. The victim was not identified, but the police in Fremont said he died almost instantly after being hit at “a high rate of speed.”
“He just goes over and hits this guy,” Detective Bill Veteran said of the driver. “And he kept going.”
Witnesses told the police that the impact shattered the driver’s windshield and damaged the vehicle’s front end, Detective Veteran said.
About an hour later, the police in San Francisco received reports of a reckless driver in a black S.U.V. swerving through streets and onto sidewalks hitting pedestrians in the Pacific Heights and Laurel Heights neighborhoods west of downtown.
The attacks continued for 15 to 20 minutes, the police said, as the driver worked his way west, sometimes traveling the wrong way on one-way streets.
At least 13 people were injured at 12 locations, the San Francisco police said. Victims were taken to several local hospitals. As of last night, one was listed as having life-threatening injuries, with others suffering less serious injuries like broken bones, cuts and bruises.
Many of the injured were struck on California Street, a major east-west thoroughfare, which rolls up and down hills from the city center to the Pacific Ocean. Television reports showed crushed bicycles and blood on sidewalks, as ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the scene.
The driver was stopped in front of a pharmacy after the police boxed the vehicle in. The suspect was being interrogated late Tuesday, the police said.
A bomb squad vehicle was later called to inspect the black S.U.V., as onlookers and rows of police cars lined the sidewalks. Shattered glass was strewn in the street, and the vehicle’s front end was heavily damaged.
Of course Rush Limbaugh and his fellow idiots are making much of the (apparent) fact that Omeed A. Popal is a Muslim—while blithely ignoring the far more relevant fact that he is a motorist! We have witnessed this phenomenon before.
See more reasons WHY WE FIGHT.
