Man Who Hurt 21 People With Car Apologizes

A man who drove into a crowd of New Year’s revelers apologized to the families of those who were hurt and was freed on bail Tuesday, while his lawyer insisted he had been defending himself and his pregnant girlfriend.

Anthony Brooks is expected back in court Jan. 22 on charges including eight counts of assault with intent to murder. He was freed on $1,000 bail.

“I just want to say I’m sorry to the families of the people who got hurt,” Brooks said. “Other than that, I have nothing else to say. I’m just tired, and I want to go home.”

Twenty-one people were hurt when Brooks, in a car with his girlfriend, Antoinette Labord, ran into them on a packed waterfront street a few minutes into the new year.

Police, prosecutors and witnesses said Brooks turned his car into a battering ram in his determination to free the vehicle, driving backward and forward into people as they scrambled to get away.

One witness told police he heard Brooks threaten to run down everybody before he revved his engine, Assistant Dist. Atty. John Julian told the court.

Brooks and Labord, who is 6 1/2 months pregnant, say Labord was driving at first, trying to inch through the crowd while beeping the horn and flashing the lights. The crowd attacked: Someone threw a bottle, breaking the car’s back window, and another person reached inside and punched Labord in the face, they say.

“We feared for our lives,” said Labord, who had a bruise below her eye.

They said Brooks tried to shield her, then they traded seats and he tried to speed away.

“He acted on the most noble instinct--the protection of his fiancee and his unborn child,” defense lawyer Frederick Barry Jr. told the court.

Labord had said earlier that race played a major part in the incident. Brooks and Labord are black; the crowd was mostly white. But she stopped short of that assertion outside court.

“I was spit on. So you go figure. That’s hate, when there’s somebody spitting on you, hitting you for no reason at all,” she said.

Police insisted Tuesday that Brooks acted out of impatience and anger, not fear.

“The damage to the car was done after the fact,” police spokesman Brendan Flynn said.