Fatal Times-Square attack driver found mentally ill

NEW YORK: The maroon Honda seemed to appear in Times Square out of nowhere one day in the spring of 2017, swerving onto a curb on 42nd Street, then speeding north along the sidewalk on Seventh Avenue, striking more than 20 people and scattering dozens of others before ramming a bollard at 45th Street.

Witnesses said the driver, Richard Rojas, tried to flee but was quickly apprehended. “I wanted to kill them,” he told a traffic enforcement agent at the time, according to a criminal complaint.

Rojas killed one person, Alyssa Elsman, 18, from Michigan, who was visiting New York City with relatives, and seriously injured several others, including Alyssa’s 13-year-old sister, Ava, who was treated for a collapsed lung and broken pelvis.

On Wednesday, jurors found Rojas “not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect” on one count of murder and 23 assault charges.

Many defendants in the American legal system suffer from mental illness, treated or untreated. The decision in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan was one of only a few recent instances in which a jury found that the illness outweighed evidence of guilt.

The judge, Daniel Conviser, ordered that Rojas be held, and said he would draft an examination order.

When a verdict of not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect is entered, state law requires a judge to order that the defendant undergo a psychiatric examination. If the court finds that the defendant has a “dangerous mental disorder”, it must then issue an order committing the defendant to the custody of the state commissioner of mental health.

Rojas’ trial, which lasted several weeks, centred on his mental condition at the time of the incident. The defence asked jurors to find him not responsible for his actions. Prosecutors countered that even if Rojas had been experiencing delusions during the incident, he was competent enough to know he was harming people.