NEW YORK — At least eight people were killed and 15 injured Tuesday afternoon as a speeding Home Depot truck plowed along a Lower Manhattan bike path before cops shot and captured the driver, sources said.
The arrest followed a pair of crashes involving the runaway truck on West Street a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. Several eyewitnesses initially thought it was some sort of Halloween prank.
A horde of police vehicles and first responders descended on the scene as eyewitnesses reported hearing as many as 15 gunshots after the second crash.
A source said the unidentified driver shot two more people when he pulled a gun and tried to flee the scene after running down the bicyclists.
Eyewitness Eugene Duff, 44, said he saw the white Home Depot truck run down a pair of CitiBike riders as the driver sped along the busy path off the Hudson River.
There were visible tire tracks on the bodies of the two victims as the truck continued to carve a path of carnage through the neighborhood, he said.
A police officer was apparently shot and suffered a minor injury. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, according to sources.
“I thought it was Halloween (prank) or something,” said witness Tawhid Kabir, 20, of Queens. “I saw the gun(man) running in a circle and I realized it was serious.”
Video showed four bodies scattered alongside the path on the West Side off the Hudson River. The truck, after smashing into a school bus, continued south until slamming into another vehicle at West and Chambers streets.
“We thought the guns were fake and it was a Halloween prank,” said Stuyvesant High School student Laith Bahlouli, 14. “There was a car crash, and then he started to shoot.”
Classmate Alif Rahman, 14, said they heard “four to six gunshots” and then spied two bodies covered with blankets by the NYPD.
A child was seen sitting on the lap of an adult wearing a neck brace after the incident.
“We all heard the gunfire,” said witness Michael Corbin, who works at nearby District Council 37. “I heard distinctly five shots in quick succession.”
Witnesses reported seeing a gunman firing from inside the Home Depot truck, and video showed a truck from the home improvement store sitting on a median.
“He shot about 15 times toward the pier and down West Street,” one witness told the New York Daily News. There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries, although witnesses said two bodies were covered with blankets at the scene.
The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as police shut down the West Side Highway in midafternoon on Halloween.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was briefed on the situation and confirmed that there was no active threat.
Witness Frank Brito, 45, told the Daily News he saw two trucks crash into each other and then a heavyset man get out of one in a blue tracksuit and chase someone, firing five or six times.
