Times Square: Car hits people in Fresh York

Car mows down pedestrians in Times Square, Fresh York

Fresh footage shows the moment a car driven by a crazed driver mows down pedestrians and spins mid air in the middle of Manhattan.

Car mows down pedestrians in Times Square, Fresh York 1:49

News.com.au’s James Law reports from Times Square, Fresh York, where a car has hit pedestrians.

  • May 19th 2017
  • Four months ago
  • /movie/movie.news.com.au/News/

The smashed car after the Times Square incident. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Fresh footage shows the moment a car driven by a crazed driver mows down pedestrians and shifts mid air in the middle of Manhattan.

In one movie, the vehicle can be seen approaching at high speed in the background as a youthfull woman crosses the street. It hits a a pole and flies through the air before coming to rest on a forty five degree angle.

Another movie shows the same vehicle mowing down a group of pedestrians who fall across the car’s bonnet and bounce off the windscreen.

The vehicle was driven by a Fresh York man who ploughed into a Times Square crowd, killing a teenage tourist and injuring twenty two others. Police sources say he dreamed to commit murder, and then desired cops to kill him.

“You were supposed to shoot me! I dreamed to kill them,” Richard Rojas, a Bronx resident and navy veteran, told police, after driving his car into pedestrians in the crowded tourist hotspot, The Fresh York Post reports.

Rojas, a 26-year-old who has been twice arrested for driving under the influence, wasn’t tipsy when he went on the rampage in the heart of the Big Apple, speeding the wrong way up a Times Square, a high-ranking police official said. Rojas, who was taken into custody at the scene, is being tested for drugs.

The driver, Richard Rojas, pictured instantaneously after the incident at the scene. Picture: Charles Guerin/Bestimage/Diimex

Richard Rojas, the driver who mowed down pedestrians in Times Square, pictured instantly after the incident. Picture: Charles Guerin/Bestimage/Diimex

On Tuesday night, Rojas appeared to be in “good spirits” as he partied with friends and celebrated getting his car back, a friend said.

“He just got his car back, a Honda,” said Jose Medrano, 27. “He was glad about it. He said they had taken his car for lack of payment. He just gotten it back and was blessed.”

“He was drinking last night out here, with his friends,” Medrano added. “He looked in good spirits.”

The next day, Rojas used the Honda to mow down almost two dozen people on the footpath of Times Square, police allege.

This gif shows how the attack happened.

Scenes of pandemonium erupted on a steaming hot Thursday afternoon as the car slammed into crowds, hit a pole, burst into flames and came to rest at a 45-degree angle on a bollard in the busy tourist spot about noon.

The Fresh York Police Department is not treating the incident as terror-related, but instead suspect the masculine driver was intoxicated when the car sped up a Times Square street the wrong way.

The teenager pronounced dead at the scene was Alyssa Elsman, a tourist from Michigan, who was reportedly out for a walk when she was struck. Her 13-year-old sister is among the injured.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Fresh York that no Australians had been hurt.

A wrecked car sits in the intersection of 45th and Broadway in Times Square, Fresh York. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Photos/AFP

Times Square victim Alyssa Elsman, Legal. Picture: Facebook/Alyssa Elsman

Police have taken Richard Rojas, a 26-year-old Bronx resident and navy veteran, into custody. He has two prior drink-driving records.

Witnesses told news.com.au of their horror as the maroon two thousand nine Honda Accord mowed down pedestrians.

“We heard the crash, we turned our backs and witnessed people fleeing from the scene, running,” witness Kelly Graves, of Wisconsin, told news.com.au, adding that there were people splashed across the sidewalk.

Richard Rojas is arrested. Picture: Oscar Navarro Reyes/AP

Rojas (pictured) drove his car the wrong way up a Times Square street and hit pedestrians on the sidewalk. Picture: Oscar Navarro Reyes/AP

People tend to an injured man after a car plunged into him in Times Square in Fresh York. Picture: AFP/Jewel Samad

One person died and many were injured after the car sped through crowds. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Jewel SAMAD

“There were groups of people that were surrounding the people injured attempting to help them.

“We spotted flames shooting out of the car.”

Witness Kelly Graves said she witnessed the car in flames in Times Square. pic.twitter.com/Q19oT0IwiF

Brazilian student Bruno Carvalho, 27, said he witnessed blood on the sidewalk after the horror crash.

“The car passed in front of me . five seconds later, the car would have hit us,” he told news.com.au.

“At least five people got indeed, indeed injured.

“It’s just insane. I feel like five seconds later it would be me and my father (killed).”

Bus tour salesman Alpha Balde said he saved a tourist who the car had backed into.

“The car hit the stud from the back … The car hit the barricade and the power of the barricade backed the car up,” he told news.com.au at the scene.

The force shoved the man down face very first onto the sidewalk, knocking him unconscious.

“I had to budge him from the fire. The car caught fire straight away,” Mr Balde said.

A wrecked car sits in the intersection of 45th and Broadway in Times Square. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Pictures/AFP

Police said Mr Rojas made a quick U-turn onto 42nd Street and then drove up the sidewalk for three blocks, passing tourist hot catches sight of such as the Hard Rock Cafe and the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant and mowing people down before wedging into a pole.

He was combative with officers who manacled him, authorities said.

The Driver has been taken by police and tested for drink driving. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Jewel SAMAD

Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them visitors from around the world, pass daily through the bustling commercial area, the heart of the Broadway theatre district.

Footage from the scene shows people lounging crumpled on the pavement with one covered by a bloodstained blanket. Parts of the car as well as boots and clothing were sprayed across the road.

The area is now under a police cordon after the vehicle came to rest on its side with smoke pouring from it. Police shoved pedestrians back from the scene as a precaution as the vehicle was probed for explosives.

I’m live in Times Square where a car has driven into pedestrians. @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/1GPlIK8hND

“People were being hit and rolling off the car,” eyewitness Josh Duboff said.

Cheryl Howard and her daughter said they were “so freaked out” after observing the car “mow everyone down”.

— Marc Palladino (@marc_palladino) May Eighteen, two thousand seventeen

‘I DON’T KNOW HOW I’M GOING TO FUNCTION WITHOUT HER’

Miss Elsman posted a movie to Instagram of her on the famous crimson staircase in Times Square about an hour before the crash.

“She would always text me back as quick as she could and when I didn’t hear from her or her friend I knew something horrible happened,” her bf Trevor West told the Fresh York Post.

“I knew something was wrong.”

Mr West said Ms Elsman was “everything to him”.

“She motivated me, loved me, gave me everything I needed that I couldn’t give myself. And now that she’s gone I don’t know how I’m going to pack that void,” he said.

“I don’t know how I’m going to function without her ever again.”

The incident comes after a series of terror attacks which have seen cars used as weapons in London, Berlin and Nice, however the Fresh York Police Department believes this case was not terror related.

“It is believed to be an isolated incident; it remains under investigation,” the Fresh York Police Department said.

A police officer inspects the crashed car. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

“The twenty two people injured have been brought to area hospitals. NYPD detectives from numerous units are investigating the incident.”

Television footage displayed police officers restraining a man in a dark T-shirt and placing him in a police car.

Witnesses said the motorist had driven against traffic and onto the sidewalk, striking pedestrians.

“Everybody was just running, everyone was worried for their lives,” a witness told local CBS television.

Very first responders attend to an injured woman after a car plunged into pedestrians in Times Square in Fresh York. Picture: AFP/Jewel Samad

“He’s just mowing down people,” said Asa Lowe, of Brooklyn, who was standing outside a store when he heard screaming.

At the scene seven people were placed on stretchers while footwear were scattered on the pavement.

President Donald Trump “has been made aware of the situation in Times Square and will proceed to receive updates”, his spokesman Sean Spicer said.

.@POTUS has been made aware of the situation in Times Square and will proceed to receive updates

Police are investigating the cause of the crash. Picture: AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Witnesses describe horrifying Fresh York rampage scene Trio:02

Witnesses describe the moment they witnessed a vehicle plow through a crowd in Fresh York City.

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