UPDATE 17:48GMT Various commentators on the Brietbart site are claiming that the New York Post has named the driver as Richard Rojas, 26, who lives in the Bronx,
“Rojas, who has two prior arrests for DWI, was tested for alcohol and refused to make any statements, sources said”
So, it’s looking more like driving whilst drunk or wasted rather than driving while murderously Islamic.
There has been a terrible incident which has occurred in New York City where a car has ploughed into pedestrians in Times Square. It is not known at this point in time whether this is yet another Islamic vehicular Jihad attack, but witnesses who’ve spoken to news media have said that the vehicle appeared to driving at people intentionally and was not ‘out of control’.
Of course this horrific incident that has claimed the life of one person and injured at least 20 others, may be crime related or the result of an accident or technical failure of the vehicle and at this point we cannot discount these other reasons and so far the New York Police Department has not claimed this incident as terrorism. However, many people’s thoughts will immediately turn to the terrorist explanation, especially when you compare this to other similar Islamic attacks that have occurred elsewhere.
An alleged perpetrator of this atrocity has been arrested by city police and he has been taken away for questioning. Witnesses who spoke to the Reuters News Agency whose offices are nearby to where the attack occurred at 16:00GMT said that the vehicle was travelling against the prevailing traffic and going the wrong way down a one way street. Reuters added that: ‘The car crashed into a pole and came to rest at 45th Street and Broadway.’ The US TV station CBS is being quoted by the BBC as saying that the driver has been arrested for ‘driving whilst impaired’. This suggests that on some level drink or drugs may be involved and that is the main cause of this incident, but the police could equally have also have used this charge merely as an immediate holding charge and more charges and more details may come out later.
My thoughts and prayers are with those who are grieving and who have been injured in this incident and my fears are that this might be a yet another vehicular jihad attack.
Links
Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-new-york-crash-idUSKCN18E2D1
Breitbart
Sky
http://news.sky.com/story/ten-people-hit-by-speeding-vehicle-in-new-yorks-time-square-10883150
BBC putting this down to a driver impaired by drink or drugs
