 [Al Jazeera] The man accused of killing a woman and injuring 22 others by using his car to cut a three-block swath through the crowded sidewalks of New York's Times Square denied all charges related to the May attack, prosecutors said.
Richard Rojas, 26, pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to second degree murder, second degree attempted murder and first and second degree assault, prosecutors said.
Dressed in a beige jail uniform, Rojas mostly looked down at the defence table during his arraignment on Thursday in the May 18 melee.
Rojas, a Navy veteran, drove his Honda sedan down Seventh Avenue and made a u-turn, mowing down pedestrians on sidewalks before crashing, prosecutors said.
Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old woman visiting from Michigan, was killed, while 22 other pedestrians suffered various injuries, some serious.
Photographers snapped pictures of a wild-eyed Rojas after he climbed from the wrecked car and ran through the street waving his arms.
He later told police he had been smoking marijuana laced with the hallucinogen PCP.
According to prosecutors, Rojas said he wanted to "kill them all".
Rojas has several prior criminal cases. He pleaded guilty shortly before the crash to harassment in the Bronx after he was accused of pulling a knife on a notary in his home. He also had two previous drunken driving cases.
While serving in the Navy in 2013, he spent two months in a military jail, though records do not disclose the reason.
| This was at the time reported to be an egregious case of attempted suicide by cop by a gentleman whose brief stint in the Navy did not cure the various problems he had before he enlisted. Why on earth he would claim to be innocent now is beyond my understanding. |
|
