THE
GAZETTE VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 13 JUNE 24, 2021
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WILTON MANORS
Tragedy Strikes Pride Crash kills one; injures three, and stops parade
By Jason Parsley Whoosh. That’s what Nicholas Coppola vividly remembers as the truck barreled past him, after striking three pedestrians, and then careening across the road into a plant nursery. “I was rattled. I’m still reeling from it,” he said. “It was a very surreal moment.” Him and his close friend Kevin Muth were on the passenger side of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s car as the tragic accident unfolded. They were just a foot away as the out-of-control truck crossed the street. “There was a thud of the driver hitting somebody. Then I heard another thud, and a body flew up in the air. There was never an attempt to break,” Muth said. “It was just a constant revving up of the engine, and the next thing you know, it crossed the street.” For Coppola though he first heard the truck ram through the fence from the staging area in Fort Lauderdale High School’s parking lot. “I actually felt the wind of the truck pass me,” he said. The truck also narrowly missed Wasserman Schultz’s car as well.
Days later Muth and Coppola were still shaken up. “It was frightening. I’ve been having lots of difficulty concentrating on stuff. I just keep replaying it, hearing it, the screams, and fear in everybody’s eyes,” Muth said. “That thud was horrible. The worst part was seeing the bodies, hit and thrown, and fall into the ground.” The accident occurred about 6:57 p.m. Saturday, June 19 on Northeast 4th Avenue just across the Rainbow Bridge. Both Muth and Coppola initially suspected the worst: someone had intentionally terrorized the LGBT community. “At that moment, unfortunately, I really thought that was our worst nightmare come true,” Coppola said. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis jumped to that conclusion. Speaking to Local 10 News within 15 minutes of the incident, he declared, “This was a terrorist attack against the LGBT community. This is exactly what it is. Hardly an accident. It was deliberate. It was premeditated.” The incident took place a week after the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub
The accident occurred about 6:57 p.m. Saturday, June 19 on Northeast 4th Avenue just across the Rainbow Bridge.
Patrons on Wilton Drive after the accident. Photo credit: Carina Mask.
shooting. This also happened a week after the vandalism of a new LGBT crosswalk in Delray Beach where a 20-year-old man had used his truck to do a “burnout” over the artwork leaving two dark skid marks. Other public officials, like Wilton Manors City Commissioner Chris Caputo, though weren’t so sure.
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“From the beginning, everything I personally saw and heard led me to believe it was a horribly tragic accident and not a terrorist attack,” he said. “Out of an abundance of caution, and to allow for a proper investigation, the City of Wilton Manors exercised restraint in its communication.”
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