TIMES SQUARE CARNAGE KILLS TEEN; 22 HURT
NEW YORK — A man steered his car onto a sidewalk running through the heart of Times Square and mowed down pedestrians for three blocks yesterday, killing a teenager, then emerged from his wrecked vehicle wild-eyed and waving his arms before he was subdued by police and bystanders.
The driver, a 26-year-old Navy veteran, told officers he was hearing voices and expected to die, two law enforcement officials said.
He lpless pedestrians had little time to react as the car barreled down the sidewalk and through intersections around noon before smashing into a row of steel security barriers installed in recent years to prevent vehicle attacks. The car came to rest with its two right wheels in the air.
“He didn’t stop,” said Asa Lowe, of Brooklyn, who was standing outside a store when he heard screaming as people scattered. “He just kept going.”
Police said 23 people were hit by the car, including an 18-year-old tourist from Michigan who died. The woman’s 13-year-old sister was among the injured.
The carnage raised immediate fears of terrorism, fueled by recent attacks in England, France and Germany in which vehicles plowed through crowds of pedestrians. But investigators quickly turned their focus to the sobriety and mental health of the driver, identified as Bronx resident Richard Rojas.
“There is no indication that this was an act of terrorism,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Photographers snapped pictures of Rojas after he climbed from the wrecked car and ran through the street before he was tackled by a group of bystanders.
Rojas initially tested negative for alcohol, but more detailed testing was being done to determine if he was high, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The officials said Rojas told officers he had been hearing voices.
Rojas was arrested a week ago and charged with pointing a knife at a notary, whom he accused of stealing his identity. He pleaded guilty to a harassment violation. He was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated in 2008 and 2015, police Commissioner James O’Neill said.
Police identified the woman killed by the car as Alyssa Elsman, of Portage, Mich.
Rojas enlisted in the Navy in 2011 and was an electrician’s mate fireman apprentice. In 2012 he served aboard the USS Carney, a destroyer.
Navy records show that in 2013 he spent two months at a naval brig in Charleston, S.C. They don’t indicate why.
Rojas was based at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla., before being discharged in 2014 as the result of a special court martial, a Navy official said. Details were not immediately available.