Daniel Hyden convicted in horrid July 4 crash that killed four

A drunken addiction counselor who fatally mowed down four people at a joyous Manhattan July 4 celebration has been found guilty of all counts and faces up to life in prison.

Daniel Hyden, 44, was convicted Monday of four counts of murder in the second degree, aggravated vehicular homicide and seven counts of assault by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge April Newbauer after a two-week bench trial.

“The defendant is found guilty on all 12 counts,” the judge said at the hearing.

Hyden — who has described himself as a counselor and once penned an autobiography called “The Sober Addict” detailing his own struggles with substance abuse — will be sentenced Dec. 3. He faces 25 years to life behind bars.

Manhattan prosecutors have said a boozed-up Hyden went on a rampage on July 4, 2024, after he was kicked out of a bar in Lower Manhattan.

He got behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 and plowed through a fence at a Lower East Side park, barreling into a party waiting for the city’s iconic Fourth of July fireworks show.

“When he hits 11 people, he’s still revving the engine,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos said at the beginning of the trial.

“The only reason the car stops, horrifically, is because it’s on human beings,” the prosecutor said. “Human beings are preventing the tires from touching the ground.”

The drunken driver slammed into the crowd at Corlears Hook Park going 52 mph, killing four people and injuring another seven, prosecutors have said.

Hyden had a reported blood-alcohol level of .17, more than twice the legal limit, according to prosecutors.

Survivors testified about the immediate aftermath of the bloodshed — including a stricken mom who detailed seeing her daughter’s battered dead body pinned underneath Hyden’s truck.

“I saw her — Emily,” Liliana Ruiz said, referring to daughter Emily Ruiz, 31.

Liliana, who said she herself only survived because she was in the bathroom at the time, detailed her heartbreaking decision to take her daughter off life support.

“My daughter was brain-dead, so I had to make the choice,” she testified.

The heart-wrenching tragedy also claimed the lives of Herman Pinkney, 38, his aunt, 59-year-old Lucille Pinkney, and Ana Morel, 43.

Several other surviving victims shared their accounts of the horrendous holiday, too.

Lucille Pinkney’s sister, Liliana Lewis, told the court about how she had to identify both her sibling’s and her nephew’s bodies at the hospital after the carnage.

“I see my nephew all bloodied up,” Lewis testified. “I saw him myself. He was dead. Then I went to the next room to see my sister. She was dead.”