'Impaired' Driver Kills 2, Injures 7 in New Orleans Crash During Mardi Gras Celebrations: Police

A motorist struck nine people in New Orleans Saturday night, killing two and injuring seven as the city’s Mardi Gras festivities were in full swing, police said.

Tashonty Toney, 32, was arrested and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, seven counts of vehicular negligent injury, hit and run and reckless operation, the New Orleans Police Department tweeted.

Toney — whose birthday was Saturday, online records show — is the son of an NOPD officer, according to WDSU, The New Orleans Advocate and the Times-Picayune.

“This discovery does not change and will not impact our department’s investigation which will be open and transparent,” department spokesman Andy Cunningham said in a statement to the Times-Picayune.

“It is believed Toney was impaired at the time of the incident,” police wrote in a tweet.

Police Chief Shaun Ferguson said at a news conference that the suspect is “going through standard protocol in regards to breathalyzers, blood exams, things of that nature, in order to determine his condition at the time of this accident.”

NOPD officers responded to calls of bicyclists struck along a stretch of Esplanade Avenue while en route to a different call placed at approximately 8:05 p.m., Ferguson said.

Upon arriving at the scene, they found eight people injured. Two died at the scene, five were transported to the hospital in critical condition, and one, who was in stable condition, refused treatment, police said.

The Times-Picayune reported an additional injured person sought treatment Sunday morning at the urging of officials, bringing the victim count to nine.

The two fatalities were an approximately 30-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, according to WDSU. They have not yet been identified.

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Those injured were a 62-year-old man, a 56-year-old man, a 53-year-old woman and two 28-year-old women, WDSU reported.

Witnesses told the Advocate they saw a dark Chevrolet sports car attempt to pass a vehicle on the right, only to drift into the cyclists’ lane and accelerate up to 80 mph.

Online records show Toney was booked at the Orleans Justice Center Jail Sunday morning around 5 a.m. It is unclear whether Toney has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

A spokesperson for the New Orleans Police Department did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The incident comes two years after a man injured dozens of people during Mardi Gras after he drove his truck into a crowd of pedestrians while intoxicated.