NYC driver charged with throwing a lit firework into a utility truck and injuring 2 workers

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City driver has been arrested and charged with tossing a lit firework into a Verizon utility truck and injuring two workers in an apparent act of road rage, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Kevindale Nurse, 36, was driving a commuter “dollar van” in the city borough of Brooklyn at around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 when authorities say he cut off the Verizon van.

Surveillance video captured him driving erratically, stopping his van next to the Verizon vehicle, opening his door and throwing the explosive device into the truck’s driver’s side window, prosecutors said. Nurse, who was with his 4-year-old-son, then sped away through a red right.

The two Verizon workers sustained multiple injuries, including tinnitus, hearing loss and neck and back pain, according to prosecutors. Their vehicle was also extensively damaged, including a shattered windshield and deployed airbags.

The Brooklyn resident, who declined to comment through his lawyer, was arrested Thursday morning after a federal indictment was unsealed charging him with arson. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered detained during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court later Thursday.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said in a statement that the “dangerous and senseless attack on a busy intersection in the heart of Brooklyn was beyond the pale.”

Prosecutors asked the court to detain Nurse as a significant danger to the community, noting he could have caused more extensive damage and potentially death as the utility van was full of equipment used to repair high-speed fiber optic data lines.

They also said Nurse has prior felony convictions, including attempted reckless endangerment and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle charges.

Nurse faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 7 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison if convicted of the latest charges, according to prosecutors.

Dollar vans, many of them unlicensed, compete against taxis and limousines to fill transit gaps across New York City.