Authorities have reported that a 34-year-old man, who had long claimed that Google was subjecting users to torture through flashing lights, crashed his Ford Fusion into a building near Google’s New York City headquarters, resulting in injuries to three pedestrians. The incident occurred around 6 p.m. on Tuesday when the driver veered onto the sidewalk and collided with a structure on West 15th Street and 10th Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The victims, a 12-year-old girl, and two women aged 50 and 47, were hospitalized but were said to be in stable condition. The driver was subsequently apprehended and faces charges, including assault and attempted assault. As of Wednesday, he had not been arraigned, and it remains unclear if he has legal representation.
Photos shared on social media reveal a homemade sign reading “Google Tortured Me!” and what appears to be a gasoline can at the crash site, which is located just a block away from Google’s 15-story New York headquarters. The individual, who previously worked as an Uber driver, had filed a lawsuit in 2019 against Google in a New York state court in Brooklyn, accusing the company of implementing blinding lights as part of a purported “social control program.” In a Facebook post in 2021, he alleged that Google’s Android operating system intentionally flashed users in the eyes with malicious intent. Another Facebook post from the same year lamented the absence of security updates for almost four years, claiming that Google seemed unconcerned about subjecting someone to torture across the entire Android ecosystem.