Times Square driver says he tried to get mental help

Richard Rojas, of the Bronx, N.Y., appears during his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, in New York, Friday, May 19, 2017. Rojas is accused of mowing down a crowd of Times Square pedestrians with his car on Thursday. (R. Umar Abbasi /New York Post via AP, Pool)

Richard Rojas, of the Bronx, N.Y., appears during his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, in New York, Friday, May 19, 2017. Rojas is accused of mowing down a crowd of Times Square pedestrians with his car on Thursday. (R. Umar Abbasi /New York Post via AP, Pool)

NEW YORK (AP) — A man accused of mowing down pedestrians in Times Square, killing a teenage Michigan tourist and injuring 22 others, said he had been trying to get psychiatric help.

In a jailhouse interview on Saturday, Richard Rojas told the New York Post (http://nyp.st/2rDrfDD ) that he recently spoke to a mental health counselor at a local veteran’s center but they never got back to him.

“I was trying to get help,” Rojas told the newspaper from Rikers Island. “I wanted to fix my life. I wanted to get a job. Get a girlfriend.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Rojas, who lived with his mother in the Bronx, drove his car Thursday through Times Square, then made a U-turn and steered his car onto a sidewalk, plowing through helpless tourists for three blocks before crashing into protective barriers, police said.

After he was detained, he said he wanted to “kill them all” and that police should have shot him to stop him, a prosecutor said at his court appearance on Friday. They said Rojas also admitted to smoking marijuana laced with PCP sometime before the crash. Officials are awaiting toxicology reports.

“I just want to apologize to all the victims’ families ... I want to apologize to my mom,” Rojas said tearfully during the interview.

“The last thing I remember is driving in my car,” Rojas recalled. “Then, I woke up in the precinct ... I was terrified.”

___

Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com