UPDATE: Comic-Con: Latest On Car Hits Woman During ZombieWalk; Organizers Decline Comment

UPDATE 2, 1:15 PM, Sunday: And a little more. The organizers of the ZombieWalk officially declined comment regarding the Saturday evening incident, as the the event was breaking up, between the costumed crowd of participants and a car filled with a deaf family, an incident that left a 64-year-old woman hospitalized with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. We’ll continue to update as we get more.

UPDATE 1, Noon, Sunday: A little more information, very little, and a lot of heated reaction, are coming out this morning after last night’s incident at the end of the annual San Diego ZombieWalk, when a car with a deaf family in it hit and possibly broke the arm of a woman at the end of the event and a crowd of other ZombieWalkers in costume began beating on the car, panicking the family.

A San Diego Comic-Con executive said the event was not directly affiliated with the convention, declined further comment and directed inquiries to the San Diego Police Department. The SDPD watch commander said the department was continuing to investigate, and would have no further comment until Monday. The commander reiterated that the driver of the car was NOT arrested, contrary to reports from some media outlets.

The office of Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who had ziplined in the Comic-Con opening ceremonies to help kick off the annual confab, could not be reached in initial calls, and city permitting offices were also closed for the weekend. Meanwhile, the organizers of the ZombieWalk itself posted a series of tweets on the Twitter feed @sdzombiewalk, including several saying they would have no further comment to media, and then to say they wouldn’t comment to anyone else either. Regardless, the incident created the one scary and potentially tragic blemish on what has otherwise been an extremely well run Comic-Con that has attracted tens of thousands of fans.

Forget fiction, there was a truly terrifying incident outside Comic-Con this evening. A 64-year-old woman was hospitalized with a possible broken arm after being hit by a car during the annual ZombieWalk, in which people dress as the undead — complete with blood and gore — and stagger down a street. San Diego Police say the driver was a 48-year-old deaf man who had his small children with him. “The entire family in the car was deaf, and they were scared,” SDPD officer David Stafford told Deadline.

At about 5:30PM, the car was stopped at the intersection of 2nd and Island avenues, about a half-mile from the Convention Center, waiting for the marchers to lurch by. The driver told police that his children were frightened by the throng, so after several minutes, he began rolling forward trying to get out of the area. At that point, police said, several people surrounded the car and began beating on it.

“The crowd started punching the windows,” Stafford said. “They even jumped on the hood of the car. They smashed the windshield.” Police say the father drove forward again trying to get away from the angry crowd, and that’s when he struck the woman with the side of his car.

Some in the crowd then chased the car on foot as the family drove toward a policeman down the street, stopping when they reached the officer. Stafford said it was unclear whether the injured woman was a marcher or spectator, or whether she was among those attacking the car. “The crowd was giving the officers a hard time too,” he said. No arrests were made, but Stafford said police are investigating and hope to look at video of the incident. “I’m sure there is video out there about this, and that will be investigated by the traffic division,” he said.

The woman suffered serious but non-life-threatening arm injuries when she fell under the car, Stafford said. She was transferred to an area hospital for treatment.

The ZombieWalk has been a Comic-Con tradition since 2007. More than 500 people took part last year, and a huge number were dressed up for Saturday’s edition, which began at 5PM at 1st and Island. The Walking Dead Zombie Experience is going on at nearby Petco Park, where fans can sign up to be chased by the living dead or be done up in professional-level zombie makeup themselves.

The sheer number of Con attendees is staggering: Crowds in the hundreds of thousands fill the streets over the course of the weekend, and authorities increasingly are guarding crosswalks and monitoring heavy traffic areas. Two years ago at Comic-Con, a woman was hit and killed by a car outside the convention center while heading to line up for a Twilight Saga panel.

Jen Yamato contributed to this report.