The 26-year-old driver who erratically drove a car through a crowd in New York Times’ Square last week is reported to be a Navy veteran with mental health issues. Richard Rojas killed an 18-year-old girl and injured 20 others, three of them critically, when he used his maroon Honda Accord as a battering ram.
“I wanted to kill them all,” he told a traffic agent on that fateful day, according to a criminal complaint filed with a district court in New York.
Rojas has been charged with murder, 20 counts of attempted murder, one count of attempted murder in the second degree, and one count of aggravated vehicular homicide, according to the criminal complaint.
NYPD chief of Manhattan South Detectives William Aubry says police are looking into Rojas’ mental health records to help determine a motive for the attack.
The 26-year-old told police that he had smoked marijuana laced with PCP prior to driving his vehicle through the crowd of pedestrians. Police confirmed Rojas’ claims, finding PCP in his system.
Police also added that Rojas has a history of drunk driving.
According to city officials, the Navy veteran may have been suffering from mental health issues for decades.
“We’re now hearing from family members [that Rojas] has had demonstrated mental health issues going back to childhood that … went unaddressed even during the time he was in the U.S. military,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. “[The attack] appears to be intentional in the sense that he was troubled and lashing out. At the root of this … is an untreated mental health issue going back probably decades.”
Rojas himself claims that he recently sought treatment for his mental heath issues. Specifically, he claims to have asked for help from a psychology counselor.
“He said he’d call me on Monday,” Rojas told The New York Post in an interview from jail. “Monday hasn’t come yet.”