SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 14 February 2025, Friday |

One dead after driver crashes into crowd at Pride Parade in Florida

A pickup truck collided with a crowd of onlookers at a Pride parade in south Florida on Saturday, killing one person and injuring another, according to local authorities.

Mayor Dean Trantalis told Miami television station WSVN that the truck driver responsible for the incident during the festival in Fort Lauderdale had been caught.

The driver’s aim is unknown, according to police, but Trantalis described the incident as a “deliberate attack on the LGBTQ community,” according to WSVN.

The motorist, who has not been publicly identified, allegedly pretended to be a participant in the Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade and accelerated rapidly after being requested to move up, according to the complaint.

“The investigation into this incident is active and we are considering and evaluating all possibilities,” Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Ali Adamson said in a statement, adding that the police were working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The victims, both male, were transported to a local medical center where one was pronounced dead and the other is expected to survive, the statement said.

“Due to a tragic event, the Stonewall Pride Parade has been canceled but the festival events will continue,” Wilton Manors Police Department said in a tweet.

Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was in the parade, tweeted that she was safe, though she was “deeply shaken and devastated that a life was lost and others seriously injured.”

    Source:
  • Reuters