1 person killed after driver strikes pedestrians in Lower Manhattan

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - A motorist trying to park a minivan plowed into a crowd of pedestrians, killing one, in Lower Manhattan on a rainy Monday night.

Henry Herman, 70, of Monroe, New York, was backing up a 2015 Toyota Sienna toward a parking spot on Forsyth Street when the vehicle accelerated and struck several people on the sidewalk near a fruit stand, Capt. Michael Gulinello of the 5th Precinct said.

Zhang Deng Chun, 56, of Queens, was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other people were critically hurt, two were hospitalized with severe injuries, and two others were treated at the scene, police said.

Police arrested Herman and charged him with seven counts of failure to yield to pedestrians, failure to exercise due care, unsafe backing of vehicle, and drive on/across a sidewalk.

Videos shared on Citizen app show dozens of emergency responders there.

The NYPD's Highway Collision Investigation Squad took the lead in investigating the crash.