WE LOVE N.Y.
Kin of ma hurt in Times Sq. rampage thank city
A CANADIAN mom was so excited about New York, she couldn’t wait to bring her kids to the Big Apple, according to a letter released by her relatives on Wednesday.
But that enthusiasm quickly turned into heartache on a Times Square sidewalk when a deranged motorist mowed down 23 passengers. Elena Avetisian, the 38-yearold mom, was critically injured in the sidewalk rampage just before noon on Thursday that also killed an 18-year-old Michigan woman.
“Elena was excited to come to New York and show it to her children,” her relatives said in the letter. “The photos they took together in Times Square are our precious moments which we shared together. All of a sudden, our lives turned upside down.”
The Avetisians were in New York to celebrate a relative’s wedding. Moments before she was mowed down, Elena Avetisian took a photo of her three daughters standing in front of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. An NYPD horse stands in the background.
“We had so much joy and now our sister is in a coma and there are no words that can ever describe our pain,” her family’s letter said.
The injured woman’s family thanked New Yorkers and the NYPD for the kindness extended to them while Avetisian, of Montreal, remained in a coma at Bellevue Hospital.
“We can only say thank you! Thank you to the City of New York! Thank you to the NYPD for providing us with everything we need to be there for our sister,” the family wrote. “We only wish that this city will never need to do this again and that there will only be peace here from now on. After all, this city deserves it.”
Suspect Richard Rojas, 26, was indicted Wednesday for the intentional carnage on one of the busiest sidewalks in America. The exNavy sailor from the Bronx was initially slapped with one murder charge and 20 counts of attempted murder. The indictment remained sealed on Wednesday.
Police said Rojas told investigators he smoked marijuana laced with PCP before the Times Square mayhem and wanted to “kill them all.”
Michigan tourist Alyssa Elsman was struck and killed on a Seventh Ave. sidewalk. Her 13-year-old sister was injured.
Avetisian had just walked away from a group of relatives to buy a stroller for a tired child when Rojas’ Honda Accord barreled through the bustling plaza.
Relatives created a GoFundMe page — www.gofundme.com/helpsave-elena-times-square-victim— to help defray the costs of Avetisian’s recovery.
More than 370 people donated as of late Wednesday, raising $20,310 of a $25,000 goal.