Prosecutors: Driver wanted to ’kill them all’
NEW YORK (AP) – A man who was behind the wheel of a car that barreled through crowds of pedestrians in Times Square told police after his arrest that he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogenic drug PCP, according to a criminal complaint.
Richard Rojas, 26, made his first court appearance Friday, a day after he was arrested in what police are now calling an intentional attack that killed an 18-year-old Michigan woman and injured 22 other people.
“He murdered in cold blood,” Assistant District Attorney Harrison Schweiloch said during the brief proceeding.
Rojas, wearing the same red T-shirt and jeans he was photographed in a day earlier, appeared subdued as prosecutors detailed murder and attempted murder charges.
He didn’t enter a plea and was held without bail.
Rojas’ lawyer, Enrico Demarco, had no comment. His family and friends who attended the hearing cried outside court and didn’t speak to reporters. His next court appearance is May 24.
Rojas, who lived with his mother in the Bronx, drove his car Thursday from his home through Times Square, then made a U-turn, steered his car onto a sidewalk, and roared back up the sidewalk, plowing through helpless tourists for three blocks before he crashed his car into protective barriers.
Photographers snapped pictures of a wild-eyed Rojas after he climbed from the wrecked car and ran through the street waving his arms.
A group that included a security supervisor at a nearby Planet Hollywood restaurant tackled him.
After he was detained, he said he wanted to “kill them all” and police should have shot him to stop him, a prosecutor said in court Friday.
Officials are awaiting toxicology results, though Rojas “had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and was unsteady,” during his arrest, the complaint said.