Times Square driver charged with murder

The 26-year-old driver who plowed through pedestrians on sidewalks in Times Square, killing one person and injuring 22 others, has been charged with murder and is expected back in court this week.

Richard Rojas was charged on Friday with one count of second-degree murder, 20 counts of attempted murder, and five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. He was arraigned at a Manhattan court and is due back in court this week. He did not enter a plea.

Rojas said he wanted to "kill them all", and police should have shot him to stop him, a prosecutor revealed Friday.

"I wanted to kill them," he said, according to a criminal complaint, and admitted to smoking PCP-laced marijuana before the rampage midday Thursday.

A Bronx resident who had served in the Navy, Rojas told police that God made him do it, a law enforcement source told CNN.

On Saturday, Rojas told the New York Post from the city's Rikers Island jail that he "was trying to get help. I wanted to fix my life. I wanted to get a job. Get a girlfriend."

"It appears to be intentional in the sense that he was troubled and lashing out," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on the radio on Friday.

"At the root of this is an untreated mental health issue going back probably decades."

Rojas made a U-turn on 42nd Street and drove his car north on sidewalks along Seventh Avenue, hitting people for three blocks before finally coming to a stop because of steel security bollards that were in place on the sidewalk at 45th Street.

He emerged from his car, screaming and jumping up and down before he was subdued by bystanders and nearby police, witnesses said.

The pedestrian who died was Alyssa Elsman, 18, of Portage, Michigan, a tourist who was with her 13-year-old sister, who was among the injured.

William Aubry, the New York Police Department chief of detectives for Manhattan South, said that three other pedestrians who were struck remained in critical condition.

A 38-year-old Canadian resident was in "very critical" condition, according to Aubry.

Rojas has a history of drunken driving arrests and aggressive behavior and was once accused of assaulting a cab driver. Last week, he was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon when he threatened a visitor to his home.

He had enlisted in the Navy in 2011, serving abroad the USS Carney in 2012, before reportedly being dishonorably discharged in 2014. Records show that he spent two months at a naval prison in South Carolina

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 05/22/2017 page2)