MOUNT POCONO -- Thursday afternoon brought chaos to Times Square in New York City as a driver rammed a crowd of pedestrians.
The crash killed one and injured more than 20 others.
In the Poconos, commuters to and from the city had heard the news.
Some we spoke with even witnessed it happening.
"I work right there on the corner of Times Square, for Times Square in fact. So I'm on the 36th floor, we can actually look down and see and we noticed something was going on down there, and we went down, they would not let us walk any direction at the time. While I guess they were still trying to catch him,” said Carl Gill of Scotrun.
Kenny Dillard is an artist from Brooklyn who traveled from the city to the Poconos Thursday for work.
"It's crazy, it's just wow! Just all of that. That's the words I can come up with. I walked through Times Square and I didn't notice anything so it was like wow!” he said.
Police say after the crash, the driver tried to run away.
"Eventually we actually saw on, we started watching the news we actually saw them catch him, 4 or 5 cops pick him up, carry him into a car. It seems he was intoxicated we think, also supposedly he had a history of DUI’s,” said Gill.
In fact, officials say the driver was arrested twice before for driving under the influence.
They also say he is a 26-year old Navy veteran.
"My mother, she’s a veteran. She works at a school now as a case manager for them trying to find them homes and new jobs and stuff and it's very sad when things like this happen because it doesn't make the case any better. It kind of shows how sad it is to be a veteran, as well as how dangerous it is to be a drunk driver,” said Andre Dottin of Brooklyn.
"It was quite something, I actually work there and have worked there for over 20 years and I really haven't seen it like that so it was really crazy,” said Gill.
“Anything can happen in Times Square,” said Dillard. “Anything."