Attorney: Times Square driver ‘murdered in cold blood’
Man was allegedly high on drug PCP
NEW YORK — 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-yearold Michigan woman and injured 22 other people.
“He murdered in cold blood,” Assistant District Attorney Harrison Schweiloch said during the brief proceeding.
Mr. 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.
Mr. 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.
Mr. 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 Mr. 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 tackledhim.
After he was detained, he said he wanted to “kill them all” and police should have shot him to stop him, a prosecutorsaid in court Friday.
Officials are awaiting toxicology results, though Mr. Rojas “had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and was unsteady,” during his arrest, thecomplaint said.
PCP,or phencyclidine, can cause users to become delusional, violent or suicidal, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Three people were still in critical condition with serious head injuries, and a fourth is being treated for a collapsed lung and broken pelvis, according to the complaint.
Alyssa Elsman, of Portage, Mich., was killed in the crash. Her 13-year-old sister wasamong the injured.
A friend of the victim, Olivia Lemke, said the Elsman family went on a family triponce a year to New York.
Mr.Rojas has several prior criminal cases that paint a picture of a troubled man. He pleaded guilty last week to harassment in the Bronx after he was accused of pulling a knife on a notary in his home.
He also had two previous drunkendriving cases.
Mr. Rojas enlisted in the Navy in 2011 and served for part of 2012 aboard the USS Carney, a destroyer. He spent his final months in the Navy at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Fla.
In 2012, he was arrested and accused of beating a cab driver whom he said had disrespected him by trying to charge too much, according to the arrest report. The arresting officer said Mr. Rojas screamed, “My life is over!” as he was being detained. After his arrest, Mr. Rojas told the officer he was going to kill all police and military police he might see after his releasefrom jail, the Jacksonville sheriff’s office report stated.