One person was killed and another was injured when a driver at the Pride parade hit the oncoming vehicle.
One of the men in the choir unknowingly drove a car to a group of singers at the start of a Pride show in South Florida on Saturday, killing one member of the group and injuring another, the group’s leader said, correcting the idea that it was a crime of homosexuality. .
This took place earlier in the Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride Parade with a festival, a LGBTQ festival in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
The white car was connected to other floating trucks as it sped off before pedestrians crashed into the nursery, 10 News reported.
Wilton Manors Deputy Mayor Paul Rolli and Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said Sunday’s preliminary investigation showed it was an accident.
The 77-year-old driver was arrested, but police say no charges have been filed and investigations are ongoing.
“Preliminary investigations now show that it looks like it was a tragic accident, but no one is saying what the outcome is,” Rolli told the Associated Press news agency by telephone.
The pilot and other victims were members of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus family, a group of 25 elderly people.
“Our fellow Chorus people were injured and the driver was also a member of the Chorus family. As far as I know, it was not an attack on the LGBTQ group, “President Justin Knight said in a statement on Sunday. “
Rolli was floating in front of a singing car with Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis and other city officials at the crash site.
Trantalis said the driver of the emergency vehicle rushed to the scene when he was told he was in the group, crashing into the crowd. The driver passed all the traffic, eventually colliding with a fence on the other side of the road, police said.
“People were in a state of shock and some people were crying,” said Rolli, who explained that the accident took place in an area where floats were in line, and that there were no protesters.
Fort Lauderdale police say no arrests have been made and that they are investigating the FBI, saying they are “considering and investigating everything that could happen.”
Trantalis, the first sex mayor in Fort Lauderdale, told reporters that the incident was deliberate, adding to the chaos Saturday night.
“It scared me and everyone around me. I was afraid it might be intentional based on what I saw and just look a little bit,” he said in a Twitter statement on Sunday.
“As the facts continue to linger together, the picture comes of an accident that the car coveted without control.”
Flowers fall as the driver hits a spectator at the start of an arrogant show, killing one person and injuring another. [Lynne Sladky/AP Photo]
Wilton Manors is a close-knit group near Fort Lauderdale. Photos and videos from the site showed Democratic US envoy Debbie Wasserman Schultz weeping as she turned around.
In his remarks Saturday night, Wasserman Schultz said he was fine but “deeply shaken and disappointed that life has been lost.”
“I am very sorry for what happened at the event,” he said. “May the memory of a lost life be a blessing.”
June is Pride Month, commemorating the June 1969 riots that followed the police crackdown on homosexuals at the Stonewall Inn in New York. It was instrumental in promoting homosexual rights.
