As the couple Meghan Markle and Prince Harry critics questioned their assertion that aggressive paparazzi caused havoc on the streets of New York City, their remarks about their “near catastrophic car chase” sparked a media frenzy on Wednesday.
Over the course of this relentless pursuit, which lasted more than two hours, there were numerous close calls with other motorists, pedestrians, and two NYPD officers, a spokeswoman told Yahoo. (Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother, was among them.) “While being a public figure brings with it a certain level of public interest, it should never come at the expense of anyone’s privacy,”
In the wake of the incident, the NYPD, Mayor Eric Adams, and even one of the involved cab drivers have all released statements. Here is what we know about the sequence of activities leading up to the incident.
Tuesday, May 17, 8:00 p.m.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend a ceremony in midtown Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom. The Ms. Foundation for Women recognized the Duchess of Sussex for her efforts to empower women and girls around the world.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave the reception with their personal security team at 9:50 p.m., and chaos breaks out. The pair is attempting to return to their Upper East Side apartment with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, but they don’t want the paparazzi to know the address. Later, the NYPD said that officers “assisted” because photographers “made their transport challenging.”
Other sources allege that as Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, left the theater, two uniformed police were “nearly missed” by photographers.
Approximately at 10:50 p.m., a car carrying Meghan Markle and Prince Harry pulls up to the 19th precinct of the New York City Police Department on East 67th Street. Before police helped get them another vehicle, they remained there for about 15 minutes, according to two senior law enforcement sources who spoke to NBC New York.
Around 11:05 p.m., Meghan, Harry, and Ragland enter a taxi. After taking the group a block and a half west to Park Avenue, the driver, Sukhcharn Singh, says he turned south. This account was later confirmed by the Washington Post. He claims that two cars were driving after them.
He remembers, “They kept following us and were getting close to the car.” “They were filming us and taking pictures as we stopped.”
Singh was instructed to go back to the station by the couple’s security. They spent about 10 minutes in the cab, according to the driver.
“I don’t think I would call it a chase,” the driver remark. “I never experienced a sense of threat. It wasn’t like a cinematic vehicle chase. They were frightened and were silent, but New York is a safe place.
Approximately at 11:15 p.m., Meghan Markle and Prince Harry return to the police station. Although the length of their stay there is unknown, the NYPD reports that they eventually made it back to the Upper East Side without incident.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry : Thursday, May 18
The caustic statement against the paparazzi is made by a spokeswoman for the couple, and it instantly prompts similarities to the late Princess Diana. It didn’t take long for some people, including public officials, to contest the couple’s account of an intense paparazzi pursuit “lasting over two hours” in New York City.
Mayor Adams questions the duration at a separate press conference, but he also warns that even a 10-minute chase is “extremely dangerous.” He claims that “two of our officers could have been injured.”
Page Six quotes a “high-ranking source” in the NYPD as saying that the police had “no collision reports or 911 calls” regarding the incident in the afternoon.
“For this, we only had one automobile. The source claims that the chase did not last two hours.
Despite pressure, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry choose not to make another remark. However, Chris Sanchez, a member of their security team, gives an on-the-record interview to CNN.
Former Secret Service agent Sanchez describes the situation as “very chaotic.” “This is something I have never seen or experienced before. About a dozen automobiles, scooters, and bicycles were there.
It might have ended in death. They were running red lights and curbs. They once stopped the limousine that was transporting the newlyweds and began taking pictures until we were able to go, he continues.
Because the paparazzi were acting so erratically, Sanchez claims he was more worried about the general public than he was about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. The [paparazzi] were ignoring red lights while people were walking on sidewalks and crossing streets. We followed the law exactly in all we did.
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