The NYPD confirmed officers responded to the synagogue on Eastern Parkway around 8:45 p.m. for what was initially reported as a “motor vehicle collision.”
The shooting triggered a chaotic, hours-long standoff with police and forced the hospital into lockdown as patients and staff hid in rooms throughout the building.
Early indications suggest Rauber may have died from hypothermia after temperatures plunged overnight during a powerful winter storm that intensified into Saturday.
That blunt assessment is typical of Maher, whose refusal to toe a strict ideological line has increasingly put him at odds with much of the entertainment industry.
The driver, an unidentified man wearing a Detroit Lions jersey, stepped out of the car with his hands raised, appearing disoriented and speaking incoherently.