Authorities say a man who has claimed for years that Google was torturing users with flashing lights rammed a car into a building near the search engine giant’s New York City headquarters.
New York — A man who has claimed for years that Google was torturing users with flashing lights crashed a car into a building near the company’s New York City headquarters, injuring three pedestrians, authorities said.
Police said the 34-year-old man ran off the sidewalk and crashed his Ford Fusion into a building at West 15th Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday.
A police spokesman said a 12-year-old girl and two women aged 50 and 47 were hit by the car. He was admitted to the hospital in stable condition.
Police said the driver has been arrested on charges including assault and attempted assault, among other charges. He had not yet been arraigned as of Wednesday and it was unclear whether he had a lawyer who could speak for him.
Photos posted on social media show a homemade sign that reads, “Google tortured me!” And what appears to be a gasoline can was found at the crash site, which is about a block from Google’s 15-story New York headquarters.
A man who worked as an Uber driver filed a lawsuit in 2019 in New York state court in Brooklyn, accusing Google of using blinding lights to operate a “social control program”.
He claimed in a 2021 Facebook post that Google’s Android operating system was “glaring in the eyes of users” for purposes of malicious injury.
He wrote in another Facebook post that year, “I think Google thinks it’s okay to torture someone over their entire Android OS ecosystem with almost no security updates for 4 years.”
