Driver plows through crowd in Times Square
CAR BARRELS DOWN SIDEWALK FOR BLOCKS, NAVY VET WITH HISTORY OF DRUNK DRIVING TAKEN INTO CUSTODY
NEWYORK• Am an who appeared to be intoxicated steered his car onto aside walk running through the heart of Times Square on Thursday and mowed down pedestrians for three blocks, killing a teenager and injuring 22 others, before he was tackled by bystanders.
Pandemonium erupted when the vehicle barrelled through the prime tourist location and slammed into a security barrier, coming to rest with two of its wheels in the air. The car leaned on a lamppost and steel barriers intended to block vehicles from getting onto the sidewalk.
“He didn’t stop,” said Asa Lowe, of Brooklyn, who was standing outside a store when he heard screaming. “He just kept going.”
“It was going at a fast rate of speed, and to me it looked like it was trying to hit as many people as possible,” Annie Donahey, 24, told the New York Times. “People were trying to jump out of the way.”
“People were being hit and rolling off the car,” Josh Duboff told Reuters.
The crash killed an 18-year-old woman, and the injured included her 13-year-old sister, police said.
The driver, a 26-year-old Navy veteran named Richard Rojas, was taken into custody and was undergoing tests for alcohol and drugs, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said. Charges against him were pending.
Rojas had been arrested at least twice previously for driving while intoxicated, once in 2008 and once in 2015, police said. He pleaded guilty to an infraction in 2015 and was ordered to complete a drunken driving program and lost his licence for 90 days.
He was arrested last week on a charge of menacing. Police said he pointed a kitchen knife at a notary who’d come over to do paperwork, and he accused the notary of stealing his identity. The case is pending.
In previous arrests, he told authorities he believed he was being harassed and followed, according to a law enforcement official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Rojas enlisted in the Navy in 2011 and was an electrician’s mate fireman apprentice, according to the Navy. He was most recently based at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and was discharged in 2014.
The crash happened at midday on a hot, clear day that brought large crowds of people into the streets to enjoy the good weather.
Police said Rojas made a quick U-turn onto 42nd Street and drove up the sidewalk for three blocks, passing tourist draws like the Hard Rock Cafe and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant and mowing people down before slamming into a pole.
Bruno Carvalho, a student at SUNY Albany, said the car approached quickly and passed him on the sidewalk.
“People just got stunned,” he said. “I don’t think there was actually time for screaming.”
Victims had no time to react and scramble for safety in crowded Times Square, said Alpha Balde, a sightseeing-ticket seller.
“This place?” Balde said. “Anything happens here, there’s no time for people to get out.”
After the crash, the driver climbed out and began to run away, witnesses and police said. Ken Bradix from Planet Hollywood struck him to get him to stop, Balde said. They jumped on Rojas, checked him for weapons and held him until police arrived, Balde said.
Planet Hollywood said Bradix “selflessly and heroically took action, helping to stop the fleeing suspect.”
Video posted online showed smoke pouring from the car for a few moments after it stopped moving.
Rojas was combative with officers who handcuffed him, authorities said. Two law enforcement officials said Rojas told officers he was hearing voices and expected to die.
Police do not suspect a link to terrorism, but the vehicle was checked by the bomb squad and some landmarks were getting beefedup security.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a “tough day for New York City but, as usual, the people of New York will stand firm.”