The driver of a pickup truck struck several people gathered for a gay pride parade on Saturday in Florida, killing one man and injuring another, US officials said.
The incident occurred at the start of the LGBTQ parade (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, queers), in the town of Wilton Manors (Florida, southeast), near Fort Lauderdale.
Read also: Champ, the German Shepherd of the Biden couple, is dead
While the van appeared to be part of the procession, it was not clear whether this was an accident or a deliberate act by the driver of the van, who was arrested and taken into custody. Police said they were investigating all leads. The white van had lined up with the participating floats, but sped up and struck several pedestrians, before crashing into a nursery, Local 10 News reported.
Two men were taken to a medical center where one died, said police detective Ali Adamson. The driver and the victims are all members of the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men's Chorus, according to a statement from the group's president, Justin Knight. “
Our hearts and prayers are with those affected by this unfortunate accident which occurred as the Stonewall Pride Parade had just started,
” he said in a statement. “
To my knowledge, this was not an attack on the LGBTQ community. We anticipate more details to follow and ask for the love and support of the community,
”he added.
According to the mayor of Fort Lauderdale, the driver of the van was aiming at the car of a Democratic member of Congress, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, which was in a convertible. CHRIS DAY / SUN SENTINEL / REUTERS
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, in attendance at the parade, for his part told Local 10 News that the van had in fact targeted the car of Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, which was in a convertible, but had narrowly missed it. “
This is a terrorist attack on the LGBT community,
” Dean Trantalis said. “
This is exactly what it is. Not really an accident. It was deliberate, it was premeditated, and it was targeted against a specific person. Fortunately, they missed that person but unfortunately they hit two other people
”. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said on Twitter that she was "
heartbroken
" by the incident. "
I am deeply moved and devastated that a life has been lost,
”she said.
While the parade was canceled "
due to a tragic event
," other festival events continued, according to local police.
The month of June is Gay Pride Month, which commemorates the riots in Stonewall, a bar in Greenwich Village in New York City, in front of which in June 1969, riots between police and gays exasperated by the repression of their community.
These events would energize the movement for homosexual rights and give birth in June 1970 to the first New York Gay Pride.