Silke Jasso
The man behind the wheel of the car that plowed into a crowd of people in Times Square Thursday, killing 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman and injuring 22 others, has stunningly said that he “was trying to get help,” “wanted to fix my life,” “wanted to get a job” and “[g]et a girlfriend.”
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All of that and more is what Richard Rojas, 26, said during a Saturday interview from Riker’s Island, according to the New York Post.
RIP: Alyssa Elsman, 18, was killed in Times Square today. She was visiting NYC from Michigan, our hearts go out to her family. pic.twitter.com/zTlVnpALdX
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) May 18, 2017
It gets even worse from there.
“The last thing I remember is driving in my car,” he claimed. “Then, I woke up in the precinct […] I was terrified.”
Although Rojas, high on drugs, reportedly yelled at the time of his arrest that police were “supposed to shoot me,” later said, “I guess [the drugs were] laced with something.”
He said he was surprised by the cuts on his body.
Most disturbingly he said he had a sandwich with his mother before he went on a vehicular rampage and that his morning was “normal.”
“It was just a normal morning. I had a sandwich […] I wanted to clear my head,” the Post story quotes Rojas. “I told my mom, I said I was just going around.”
“I just want to apologize to all the victims’ families […] I want to apologize to my mom,” he said.
The interview comes soon after an emotional interview in which Alyssa Elsman’s father said Rojas could walk right into traffic, and it wouldn’t bother him.
Thomas Elsman, the New York Post reported, drove overnight with his son from their Portage, Michigan, home and was so distraught that he went to the police precinct where Rojas was being held and threatened to kill him.
Elsman had to be taken to a nearby hospital to be calmed down.
After that, he spoke with Fox 5 News and poured out his heart over the first born child he lost and the 13-year-old daughter who needed surgery for a fractured pelvis, broken leg and collapsed lung.
“Numb. There’s no words. I want to scream,” he said. “My first born daughter is gone. My heart died in New York yesterday.”
“If it was an accident I would forgive,” he continued. “The fact that I found out he was on drugs, and then also today in court said, ‘I wanted to kill everyone,’ and he wanted to go suicide-by-cop, that’s intent. He knew what he was doing, and I don’t care what happens to him.”
Elsman said he could watch Rojas walk right into traffic, get hit and wouldn’t shed a tear.
He said his daughter Alyssa was an “angel” who “never hurt anybody.”
For his horrific crimes, Rojas faces charges of second-degree murder, 20 counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated vehicular homicide.
