Buchanan Trustee Witness Again to Turmoil in Times Square
Seven years after helping thwart a terrorist scare when he alerted police of a suspicious car that had been strapped with explosives in Times Square, Buchanan Trustee Duane Jackson found himself again close to a chaotic scene last week in the congested theater district after a Bronx man plowed through pedestrians on the sidewalk in an apparent premeditated suicide mission.
Jackson, a Vietnam War veteran and New York City street vendor, was sitting in his chair at 46th Street and Broadway when he looked up and saw Richard Rojas, 26, who came barreling down 7th Avenue heading the wrong way for three-and-a-half blocks in a Honda Accord on the sidewalk, crash into steel barriers about 20 feet away.
Rojas was quickly apprehended after he leaped out of the mangled vehicle and tried to escape.
“I saw the guy. I saw him running. It all happened so fast,” Jackson recalled. “It was just bedlam. People running everywhere. Tons of folks screaming,”
Instead of opting to chase after Rojas, Jackson decided to tend to a man who was laying in front of his table with neck and head injuries, one of 20 people injured in the incident. A 18-year-old female visiting from Michigan was killed.
Rojas, who served in the U.S. Navy and reportedly had smoked marijuana before heading into Times Square, was charged with one count of murder and 20 counts of attempted murder.
Jackson said there was little comparison to the accident last Thursday and the event on May 1, 2010 where he was called a hero and received widespread praise for his actions, including from President Barack Obama.
“This was a whole different thing. The sequence of events was so rapid. It was all in a matter of three minutes,” Jackson said. “The police reaction was one of which it might be terrorists, but I didn’t even entertain the thought.”
Jackson said the casualties would have been much worse if the accident had occurred on Wednesday when most Broadway shows have matinees and more people are in the area. He noted Thursday was kind of quiet” before the mid-day crash.
He added a tour guide from Cortlandt had taken a group of 130 youngsters to the Hard Rock Café for lunch and they fortunately were inside when Rojas sped on to the scene.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
