Man who plowed his car into crowd "had a bad day at drug court"

[matcom]

<snip>

A car jumped a curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians on the Strip Tuesday, killing one and injuring 13 in what Las Vegas police said was an intentional act.

"He just drove onto a wide section of the sidewalk and took out all those people," Sheriff Bill Young said. "He is a bad guy, and it looks like it may have been intentional. ... All I know is that he stole his mother's car and that he had had a bad day at drug court."

The maroon Buick LeSabre was headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard about 5:15 p.m. when it veered onto the sidewalk in front of Bally's, just south of Flamingo Road.

Some tourists at the scene thought police had been chasing the driver immediately before the crash, but Young dispelled those rumors. "This was not a police pursuit," he said.

After jumping the curb, the car continued north for several hundred feet. Witnesses said the vehicle plowed through the sidewalk and kept accelerating even as bodies sprawled on the hood and others flew over the car.

"People just flew up in the air," said Diane Loe, who was shoved from the vehicle's path by her husband, Steve Daib, "so there were shoes and flip-flops everywhere."

The vehicle collided with a concrete wall and came to rest near the pedestrian bridge in front of the Bally's entrance. In its wake, it left bodies in the street, and cell phones, eyeglasses and other personal items were strewn everywhere, witnesses said.

Eight of the victims were taken to University Medical Center, where one died about 6 p.m. Another victim admitted himself into UMC.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Sep-22-Thu-2005/news/27249780.html