EAST HARLEM — A man was in custody after driving an SUV the wrong way down a one-way street, running over an off-duty officer’s foot and then striking and critically injuring a female pedestrian in East Harlem Thursday afternoon, according to officials and witnesses.
The Range Rover pulled out of a gas station just north of 102nd Street at about 1:52 p.m. and drove south on Lexington Avenue against traffic, witnesses and police said, before hitting the male officer and then slamming into the 34-year-old woman and pinning her under the vehicle on the sidewalk.
"He lost control," said Leon Sharrock, 53, who lives on 102nd Street. "There was another person pinned down under the car. She didn't say nothing. She wasn't moving."
The officer suffered minor injuries and both he and the woman were taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, officials said.
East Harlem resident Edwin Huerta, 60, said there have been a lot of collisions in the area.
"It's almost like it's cursed," said Huerta, who has lived on East 102nd Street for 10 years. "Last year my next door neighbor's wife got killed by a car on 102 and Park Avenue."
The driver remained at the scene, and was later taken into custody, according to the NYPD. No charges had been filed against him as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, police said.
Local worker Klemends Morina, 36, said the drive was "freaking out" after he struck the woman.
"He was hitting his head, saying 'Oh my God, oh my God.'"
