Three-Wheel Motorcycle Plows Into Crowd at Brooklyn's Commodore Barry Park, 10 Hospitalized

A three-wheel motorcycle drove into a crowd of people celebrating in Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Sunday around 6:40 p.m., injuring nine pedestrians and the operator. All ten were transported to area hospitals, according to the FDNY and NYPD.

Four of the ten are listed in critical but stable condition. The other six, including the motorcycle operator, sustained injuries described as stable or minor, according to the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police said a woman driving a Can-Am Spyder F3-S — a three-wheeled motorcycle with two wheels in front — failed to navigate the roadway near Flushing Avenue and Navy Street and entered the park, striking nine pedestrians. The NYPD told CBS New York it is too early to determine whether the incident was an accident or involved criminal conduct. No arrests were made at the scene, according to Brooklyn Magazine.

At least two witnesses gave CBS New York a materially different account. They said a man was actually driving the trike and fled the scene on foot, leaving the woman as the passenger. That version has NOT been confirmed by the NYPD and, as of Sunday night, police were still calling the woman the operator. The Fox 5 New York report references "an adult" operator without specifying gender, which is consistent with an investigation still sorting out who was behind the wheel.

DJ Warren Stanley was wrapping up his set at what CBS New York described as a celebration inside the park when the crash happened.

"I saw a bunch of people running. There was screaming, a lot of screaming," Stanley told CBS News New York.

Witness Eddie Bermudez said the bike "barreled into people sitting on the side," causing the driver to fly off and strike her head, losing consciousness immediately. Another witness told CBS the trike hit two people simultaneously, with one victim suffering what he described as a gash in the back of their head, according to Brooklyn Magazine.

Others at the scene told CBS New York that people had been dancing and eating nearby before the crash. Part of a chair was visibly broken, apparently from the force of impact.

"We had a beautiful day up until that," one witness said.

The strongest concern raised by witnesses is that a male driver abandoned the woman at the scene. If accurate, this would change the legal picture entirely. A hit-and-run by an unidentified male operator would carry very different criminal exposure than a single-vehicle accident by the woman currently identified as the driver. Witnesses are not always reliable, and the chaos of a crowded park crash at dusk leaves room for error in what people saw. But the NYPD has not publicly addressed or dismissed those witness accounts as of Sunday night.

The investigation is ongoing. Whether police locate and question the male described by witnesses will indicate how seriously that account is being pursued.