According to witnesses, the suspect in Tuesday's apparently deliberate crash that injured eight people in Sunnyvale was thanking God and repeating "I love you Jesus" at the scene. According to the suspect's brother, he may have been having a psychotic episode, which he's had in the past.
As we learned late Wednesday, the suspect in the case is 34-year-old Isaiah Peoples, an Army veteran who family members says suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Now KPIX/CBS SF reports via witnesses at the scene of Tuesday's crash that after mowing down eight pedestrians and crashing his car into a tree, Peoples was muttering, "I love you Jesus" and saying, "Thank you God for giving me this opportunity."
Peoples' brother, Joshua Peoples, who lives in Sacramento (the Chronicle says Oakland), tells KPIX that "the only reason [Isaiah] would do something like this" is his PTSD. Joshua Peoples further says that his brother is "very religious" and has said he "thinks Satan is trying to attack him." Family members say that Peoples takes medication, but that he's recently been under stress due to his accounting job, and has had bad episodes in the past when he's gone off his meds.
His mother, Leevell Peoples, further tells the station that her son wouldn't come to her house because he believed it was being surveilled, and he said things like "They’re watching the house." He also reportedly refused to go to a military hospital because he thought the military was after him.
Isaiah Peoples reportedly spent time in a mental hospital after leaving the military in 2015.
Peoples reportedly confessed to hitting the eight victims while at the scene, and he remains the sole suspect in the case. He was booked on eight counts of attempted murder, and as the Chronicle reports, police say he expressed no remorse.
Peoples' car struck seven people, both in a crosswalk at the intersection of El Camino Real and Sunnyvale-Saratoga Boulevard, and on a sidewalk. The eighth victim, a 9-year-old boy, was pushed out of the way by his father, but was also injured. A 13-year-old girl remains in critical condition. Per the Chronicle, "a 32-year-old woman, 33-year-old man and 52-year-old man were in stable condition with major injuries."
KGO/ABC 7 spoke to Peoples' former roommate, Chuck Herrera, who says, "The person who did what he did is not the person that I know."
Joshua Peoples tells the Chronicle, "I really believe him going to the Army... messed up his mental health."
Previously: Car Plows Into Eight Pedestrians In Sunnyvale, Arrest Made, FBI Involved
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