Suspect in Midtown Hit & Run That Injured 7 Charged With Attempted Murder
Twenty-nine year-old Imani Lucas reportedly told NYPD officers that she had “prayed to God” while she revved her Honda Accord through a red light at 6th Ave. & West 36th St. Police claim that she allegedly ran over 7 people and fled the scene, before reportedly crashing into two other cars on the Long Island Expressway. She was taken into custody shortly thereafter.
| 28 Aug 2023 | 07:12
The police response to an August 20 hit-and-run incident, which allegedly saw 29 year-old Imani Lucas speeding a Honda Accord into seven pedestrians on a Midtown crosswalk. She reportedly told cops that she “prayed to God” while revving through a red light. She was finally caught on the LIE in Queens. (
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A woman that allegedly ran over seven pedestrians in Midtown in her Honda Accord–before speeding through the Queens Midtown Tunnel and onto the Long Island Expressway, where she ultimately crashed–has been charged with attempted murder and assault, NYPD officers told Straus News.
29 year-old Imani Lucas’s mother told Gothamist that her daughter has bipolar disorder, speculating that she was possibly suffering from a manic episode when she allegedly ran a red light at 6th Ave. & W. 36th St. The incident reportedly occurred just before the clock struck midnight on August 20. The distressed woman also told the publication that Lucas would “never do anything intentionally to hurt anybody or anything,” and that “nothing like this has happened before.”
According to the NYPD, six men and one woman were injured on a crosswalk during the ensuing rampage. Four were transported to Bellevue in stable condition, including an Italian couple on vacation identified by La Voce di New York. A 32 year-old man taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center was deemed to be in stable condition. The two remaining injured pedestrians refused medical attention, cops said.
Police noted that Lucas didn’t stop there, however, instead continuing down W. 36th St and into the Queens Midtown Tunnel. Thirty minutes after she plowed through the seven pedestrians, she reportedly slammed into two cars on the Long Island Expressway near 188th St. and was taken into custody.
Media outlets have widely reported that Lucas told police officers that she had “prayed to God” before speeding through the red light. She was seen wearing a gray t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Good Vibes” while being led by officers out of the Midtown South Precinct.