SUV Crazy

An SUV driver has finally done what we've always suspected a stereotypical SUV driver might do:

A man targeted pedestrians with his sport utility vehicle Tuesday, killing one man and injuring at least 13 people and himself, authorities said.

Among the injured are a young child. Only the first person struck was killed. The others were run down later, after the driver crossed the bay to San Francisco from Fremont.

The man is being questioned, as is his family.

UPDATE: The San Jose Mercury News has more:

The victims appear to include a Fremont man, a 78-year-old man who was using a cane to cross the street when he was struck, and a woman in her 70s. Earlier reports that a child was injured was incorrect.

"It's one of the craziest things I've seen in my years on the force,'' said San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens. "This individual was driving around the city mowing people down."

They have not released the name of the driver in custody, but the Department of Motor Vehicles has released the name of the person the SUV, a black Honda Pilot, is registered to: Omeed A. Popal, of Fremont.

The million dollar question: is that a Muslim name, and is this a frelance Jihadi, like the driver in North Carolina?

If it is, we won't hear anything about it from the authorities. If it is not, they'll fall all over themselves to tell us. It's pathetic that in America we have to treat news like this in the same way my wife once treated news coming from the Soviet-era Kremlin: all tea leaves, no straightforward facts.

The rest of the Mercury News article deserves a read, if only for the sheer drama.

Technorati tags: San Francisco