Tempers flare in NYC court as alleged drunk driver charged with murder in deadly July 4 tragedy that left 3 dead
A suspected drunk driver accused of killing three people by plowing into a July 4 bash was greeted with obscenities Thursday as he was hit with a murder charge at a highly-charged Manhattan court hearing.
Daniel Christopher Hyden, 44, pleaded not guilty in the horrific crash in courtroom packed with the victims’ friends and relatives, who gave him the finger and shouted, “coward,” and “eat s–t, a–hole!”
“I wanted to go at him, but I see all the cops around and I don’t wanna get locked up,” said Derrick Pinkney, whose sister Lucille Pinkney and nephew Herman Pinkney were killed in the mishap.
“I would definitely want to do something to this man ’cause it’s not right,” he fumed. “You’re taking innocent people’s lives and you’re saying you’re not guilty? That’s not right.”
The Independence Day tragedy at Corlears Hook Park on the Lower East Side left three people dead — Lucille Pinkney, 59, her 38-year-old son, Herman Pinkney, and Ana Morel, 43.
Prosecutors said seven others were hurt when Hyden allegedy plowed into the crowd celebrating the holiday at the park shortly after 8:30 pm after he was denied access for being too drunk.
Emotions were so high during Thursday’s arraignment that relatives and friends of the Pinkney’s almost got into fisticuffs outside the courtroom over whether their bodies would be cremated, relatives said.
“They’re trying to claim my nephew’s body, they’re trying to claim him and they’re not even family,” Derrick Pinkney told The Post. “But this is our blood. We went to court a week and a half ago and they’re trying to cremate him and we were like, ‘No, we don’t believe in it.’
“But they said, ‘No,’ that’s what my nephew wanted and we were like, ‘No, he don’t want that.’”
Sources said Hyden had tried to get into the Independence Day celebration at the park but was turned away because he was too drunk — and allegedly returned behind the wheel to wreak havoc.
Hyden, a self-proclaimed addict, allegedly floored his Ford F-150 seconds before he slammed into the crowd around 8:50 p.m., then tried to put the pickup in reverse to get away but was nabbed by bystanders.
Prosecutors said the Pinkneys and Morel were “immediately pronounced dead” after the crash, and said four of the victims were trapped underneath the 5,000-pound vehicle.
Diamond Pinkney, the dead mom’s 29-year-old son, told The Post the day after the tragedy that he was home about a block away and heard the screams of horrified bystanders.
“We heard the loud bang,” he said on July 5. “We thought it was fireworks. It wasn’t.
“They were yelling their names, then yelling my name,” he said. “My family was very well known here.”
The accused killer admitted his addiction in “The Sober Addict,” a 2020 book he wrote about his demons.
“I told him this would happen one day,” his ex-girlfriend told The Post after the crash. “I told him.”
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the two split over his drinking.
Hyden was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on Sept. 5, when he is expected to have a new lawyer — his current Legal Aid lawyer said he has a conflict of interest.
“He needs life,” Lucille Pinkney’s niece, Haneefah Hasan, said after Thursday’s court appearance.
“I’m filled with a lot of anger,” she said. “A lot of anger and hatred. And just a lot of emotion there. They were right to have police there blocking him.”
District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Hyden was “intoxicated when he plowed through a group of friends and family.
“This alleged act tragically cut the lives of Lucille Pinkney, Herman Pinkney, Emily Ruiz, and Ana Morel short and severely injured seven others,” Bragg said. “My thoughts are with the families of those whose lives were lost, the injured victims, and the tight-knit community, all of whom are relling from the effects of this horrifying and senseless tragedy.”
