One person died and several others were injured on Sunday when a hit-and-run driver mowed down a group of people after a stabbing outside a New York City hookah bar, police said.
Police officers responded after being notified of an assault outside XS NYC, a hookah lounge in South Ozone Park, Queens, about 4:30 a.m.
Police said two people got into a fight and stabbed each other before the deadly hit-and-run.
A New York City detective said the incident wasn’t terror-related.
Ozzie Rogers, who witnessed the incident, told the New York Daily News that he saw the vehicle go at least 50 mph on the sidewalk.
“The bodies went flying. The car was going really fast, at least 50 mph on the sidewalk,” Rogers said.
He said the driver was “going after someone” and witnessed a girl holding a man back.
“The girl is yelling ‘Stop, stop. No, no,’ when this car just comes from nowhere and hits the whole group,” Rogers told the paper.
One person was taken into custody at the scene, the NYPD tweeted.
Police were searching for the driver, The Associated Press reported.
The stabbing victims were in stable condition.
Six people were struck by the car, including the person who was killed.
One of the injured was in critical condition. The others were in stable condition.
On Halloween, Sayfullo Saipov careened into a crowd of pedestrians in Lower Manhattan, killing eight people in what police said was a terror-related attack. He pleaded not guilty last week to terrorism charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
