NEW YORK — Nearly 100 people gathered in Brooklyn on Monday to mourn a man who was killed and rally for another who was critically injured when a U-Haul driver mowed them down during a terrifying rampage last week.
Attendees included the wife of Mohammed Salah Rakchi, 36, a victim who is “still unconscious,” she said.
“He’s stable, but still in critical condition,” said the spouse, Nadjet Tchener. “I’m so sad about what happened to my husband.”
Salah Rakchi was one of nine people struck when Weng Sor, 62, allegedly got behind the wheel of the U-Haul truck he had rented in Florida and rode through the streets of Brooklyn running people down.
The U-Haul slammed into a pedestrian, a police office and people on bikes, mopeds and an e-bike. Victim YiJe Ye died of his wounds.
Sor was charged with murder and multiple counts of attempted murder in the unprovoked attack.
“The man who did this, of course, should be in prison,” Tcehener said at the Monday evening vigil at 75th Street and Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge.
Salah Rakchi and Tchener have two children together — a 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son who are still working to understand the violence their family is going through.
“My kids keep asking about their father,” Tchener said.
Ye, 44, suffered blunt-force trauma when he was hit at Fort Hamilton and Bay Ridge Parkway. He was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn, where he later died.
He was the father of three teens, twin boys and a girl.
Sor, who has a long history of mental instability, told police he spotted “an invisible object” heading toward the U-Haul before he snapped and went on the deadly ride through Brooklyn, beginning in Sunset Park before he moved into Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.
“It’s clear that this individual had malice in his heart,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the vigil.
He told mourners that in light of the attack, the Health Department will roll out a “comprehensive next phase” of the city’s mental health plan — an apparent reference to his controversial policy of more aggressively using a state law dictating when the mentally ill can involuntarily be placed into care.
“Let’s not wait until people carry out violent acts,” the mayor said. “Let’s give them the care that they need beforehand.”
As vigil attendees lit candles in honor of the victims, Adams told reporters the outpouring of support is what “New York does best.”
“It’s so very difficult,” Tchener added. “The mayor’s support means a lot to us.”
———
