DRIVER CHARGED IN SUNNYVALE CRASH
Police: May have been an intentional act; eight counts of attempted murder
A government defense auditor who served as an Army gunner in the Iraq War drove into a crowd of pedestrians in a busy Sunnyvale intersection Tues- day, apparently intentionally, injuring eight people including three children. An eyewitness to the crash said the man stumbled out of his car ranting, “I love you, Jesus.”
Law enforcement officers identified the driver, who was not injured, as Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, a resident of Sunnyvale. He was arrested at the scene and booked into Santa Clara County jail, where he is being held without bail on suspicion of eight counts of attempted murder.
Based on the lack of skid marks
“There is no indication of the vehicle ever trying to brake. There is no indication the driver was trying to avoid the pedestrians.” — Capt. Jim Choi, of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
indicating an attempt to slow down or stop before hitting the victims, the crash appeared to have been intentional, said Capt. Jim Choi of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety. He said witnesses told police that instead, the driver seemed to accelerate the dark-colored Toyota Corolla before the rampage ended with the car crashing into a tree.
“Based upon initial witness accounts, there is no indication of the vehicle ever trying to brake,” Choi said. “There is no indication the driver was trying to avoid the pedestrians.”
Choi said Peoples did not give a motive but that there was no evidence that terrorism was involved or that he was linked to any terrorist organizations.
“He did not express any remorse from what we can tell,” Choi said. “He was just even-keeled.”
The FBI, he said, was assisting in the investigation and had been alerted in case there were federal law violations.
Peoples has a clean driving record and a valid driver’s license and car registration, according to the DMV. A search of court records found he had no known criminal history in Santa Clara County.
The human resources department at the Western Region Defense Contractors Audit Agency, headquartered in Virginia, said that Peoples started working there Aug. 20, 2017, as an auditor in the Sunnyvale area, and that he remains an active employee. On its website, the agency
says that it “provides audit and financial advisory services to Department of Defense (DoD) and other federal entities responsible for acquisition and contract administration.”
In a phone interview with this news organization, his older brother, Joshua Peoples, said Isaiah Peoples served as a gunner and provided security for the Army in Iraq. He grew up in the Bay Area and got his bachelor’s degree at Sacramento State. His brother said Peoples had shown signs of post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Iraq and had at one point been hospitalized for psychiatric issues. The brother said that their mother had spoken to Isaiah the day before the attack and said he seemed about to have “another one of those episodes.”
Joshua Peoples said the family was religious and that their father was a nondenominational pastor.
On Wednesday morning, police were stationed in front of the Lincoln Glen apartments in Sunnyvale, the address listed as Peoples’ residence. Two residents of the apartment complex said they had seen a man matching a photograph on a Facebook profile in Peoples’ name in the complex but had never spoken to him.
Late Wednesday morning, the police cordoned off a courtyard area near the apartment and shooed away the news media. A short while later, officers leaned a ladder up against the building, used an ax to break the apartment’s sliding glass balcony door and
entered the apartment.
Sunnyvale Capt. Ava Fanucchi said that police served a search warrant at the residence. Officers could be seen carrying away several evidence bags filled with contents from the apartment.
Police said six of the injured were taken to local hospitals, including two of the three children. Police have not publicly identified the victims. A 13-year-old girl was the most seriously hurt in the crash and was in critical condition. A 9-yearold boy was treated at the scene and released, as was a 15-year-old boy. Four other people, including three men and a woman, had moderate to major injuries and are in stable condition, according to police. The 13-year-old and the 9-yearold are sister and brother,
police said, and their father, 45, was one of the adult victims. He was treated at the hospital and released.
On Tuesday, officers were called to the intersection of El Camino Real and Sunnyvale Avenue around 6:40 p.m. for a report of a majorinjury collision, and arrived to find eight people who had been hit by a car. The driver was traveling westbound on El Camino Real when he hit the group of pedestrians in a crosswalk on Sunnyvale Avenue. According to online dispatch archives, a little more than 10 minutes after crews arrived on the scene, one first responder radioed: “This is appearing to be an intentional act — we’re going to need the bureau to respond out here as well.”
San Jose resident Don Draper said he was on the way to visit a friend to watch the San Jose Sharks playoff game Tuesday evening and had stopped for a red light at the intersection when he saw the Corolla speeding by on his left.
“I didn’t really notice him until he was directly in front of me, going at least 60 miles an hour,” Draper said. “Several people got hit. One person, a woman, was launched in the air right in front of me. She was upside down, feet pointing straight up, flipped around and landed right in front of my car.”
Police say the man continued driving, striking additional pedestrians on the corner and sidewalk before crashing into a tree. Draper, 72, said he got out of his car and ran after the driver.
“I’m so horrified and enraged,” Draper said. “He had gone onto the grass and that’s when he hit the tree.”
Draper added, “He kept repeating, mumbling over and over again, ‘I love you, Jesus’ and ‘Jesus, I love you.’ He seemed to be dazed. At this point, I walked back from where the car was, toward the intersection and dialed 911. I was so nervous and upset, I was having trouble dialing.”
On his way back to his car, Draper recalled seeing officers tending to an injured bicyclist with his mangled bike nearby. He said he also saw a man who appeared to have been thrown about 30 feet from the intersection. Draper said the man’s daughter was the teenage girl who was also injured in the crash.
Draper said he saw the driver get handcuffed by officers, and that the man did not appear to him to have been driving under the influence.
“His speech was not slurred,” Draper said.
A Facebook profile for Isaiah J. Peoples that neighbors in the apartment complex recognized revealed nothing that would have predicted Tuesday’s mayhem. In the most recent post, on Nov. 18, 2017, Peoples asked for donations to a group called No Kid Hungry for his birthday. In October 2017, he posted a photo of a dead elephant, in an appeal against poaching. By Wednesday afternoon, comments attacking Peoples were appearing on the page. “Nothing like plowing down innocents,” one said.
Anyone who witnessed the collision or has information about the case can contact the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety at 408-730-7110.