Driver admitted hitting pedestrians
Four injured badly while crossing California road
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A California motorist told investigators Wednesday that he deliberately drove into a crosswalk in a quiet Silicon Valley suburb, hitting seven people and injuring eight, but did not say why.
Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, was being held on eight counts of attempted murder as four of the victims remained hospitalized with major injuries. A 13-year-old Sunnyvale girl was in critical condition.
Peoples did not resist arrest after the incident Tuesday night and was talking to investigators, Sunnyvale police Capt. Jim Choi said.
“He did not express any remorse as far as we can tell,” Choi said.
Peoples’ mother, Leevell Peoples, of Sacramento, said she couldn’t imagine any situation in which her mild-mannered son would deliberately crash into innocent people other than something related to the post-traumatic stress disorder she said he experienced after serving as an Army sharpshooter in Iraq.
“Unless the car malfunctioned, he would not have done that. He’s like the perfect, model citizen,” she said. “He’s an Army vet, he’s a good kid, never been arrested. I promise you: It was not deliberate. If anything, it was that Army.”
Isaiah Peoples, an auditor for the Department of Defense in Mountain View, received inpatient treatment for PTSD in 2015, his mother said.
Choi said police were investigating the PTSD report.
He said Peoples kept going after hitting the pedestrians until he struck a tree at high speed.
Six people were taken to hospitals, including the youngest victim, a 9-year-old boy who was treated and released with minor injuries. A 15-year-old boy was treated and released by paramedics.
The crash happened at a major intersection in an area with commercial strip malls that residents described as a quiet California suburb.
Don Draper, 72, said he was waiting for the light to turn green when the Toyota zoomed by. Draper said he was enraged and marched over to the car.
“He wasn’t hurt, apparently, and he was mumbling over and over again, ‘Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus’ again and again,” Draper said. “At this point I realized I had to call 911.”