OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:23 PM – Wednesday, May 17, 2023
A spokesman for the notable couple claimed that a “near catastrophic car chase” involving crazed paparazzi caused great distress for Prince Harry, Meghan, and her mother, who were all riding together.
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The incident took place on Tuesday after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended an awards ceremony in the Big Apple.
Their spokesman issued a statement claiming that the “relentless pursuit” caused “multiple near collisions” and lasted for more than two hours. No arrests or injuries were reported, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).
The NYPD reported that a slew of eager photographers “made their transport challenging,” and one particular problem involving Harry and Meghan had occurred. No further details were provided.
Buckingham Palace has remained silent regarding the incident.
According to reports, there were six automobiles involved in the chase, and the drivers engaged in reckless driving that included running red lights, driving over the sidewalk, carrying out blocking maneuvers, taking photographs while not paying attention to the road, and even reversing down a one-way street while still in motion.
Due to the unexpected chase, Harry and Meghan did not immediately return to their friend’s residence, where they had been temporarily staying during the New York trip, for their own security. The shaken-up pair and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, reportedly attempted to flee the paparazzi by driving to a police station in Manhattan.
A different yellow cab was eventually flagged down by their security so that Harry, Meghan, Ms. Ragland, and another security guard could try to confuse the photographers and make a break for it.
However, when the paparazzi noticed the get-away cab and its passengers, they resorted to their own security vehicles.
The four passengers were picked up by a cab driver named Sukhcharn Singh, also known as Sonny, on 67th Street between Lexington Avenue and 3rd Avenue, according to the British press.
“A security guard hailed me, next thing you know Prince Harry and his wife were hopping into my cab,” Singh said. “As we went a block, we got blocked by a garbage truck and all of a sudden paparazzi came and started taking pictures. They were just about to give me the location of where they were going to go, but then they told me to circle back to the precinct.”
The driver claimed that the triad were “nice people” who “looked nervous.”
However, he also insinuated that being a cab driver in New York desensitizes you and he felt that the pair’s spokesman’s description of the incident as a “near catastrophic case” was over-exaggerated and dramatic.
“New York is the safest place to be, there’s police stations, cops on every corner,” he said.
Although Singh’s narrative covered only ten minutes of what the representative had characterized as a two-hour fiasco.
The driver’s account also differs from that of Chris Sanchez, an additional member of the couple’s security detail, who told the press that the situation was “very chaotic” and that at one point paparazzi had blocked the vehicle that was transporting Harry, Meghan, and her mother.
“The public were in jeopardy at several points,” he said. “It could have been fatal.”
At the event they all attended earlier in the evening, Meghan and LaTosha Brown, the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, both collected awards alongside each other.
According to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the incident “could have” resulted in two police officers getting hurt. He also mentioned that it “would be horrific to lose an innocent bystander during a chase like this.”
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