1 person is dead and 1 person has been seriously injured after a driver slammed into spectators Saturday evening at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, killing one man and seriously injuring another during the Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade Saturday night.
To my knowledge it was an accident. This was not an attack on the LGBTQ community,” Knight said in the statement. “We anticipate more details to follow and ask for the community’s love and support.”
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said a driver of a pickup truck suddenly accelerated when he was told he was next in the parade, crashing into the victims, according to WSVN-TV.
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In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Trantalis said he believed the crash was “deliberate.” and spectator Christina Currie told the South Florida SunSentinel that she was with her family at the start of the parade.
“All of a sudden there was a loud revving of a truck and a crash through a fence,” Currie said. “It was definitely an intentional act right across the lanes of traffic.”
It is unclear at this time what exactly did happen and why.
Police said the driver was taken into custody, Both the driver and the victims were a part of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus family, according to a statement reported by news outlets from the group’s president, Justin Knight.