(Newswire.net — December 22, 2015) — Las Vegas, Nevada – Lakeisha Holloway, 24, is accused of deliberately driving onto the sidewalk killing one and injuring more than two dozen pedestrians. Holloway told the police that the Security officers that chased her from a parking lot stressed her out, USA Today reported.
A security video shows obvious intention, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who dismissed terrorism as a possible motive.
According to the police, Holloway stated she and her daughter were trying to rest in a parking lot in her 1996 Oldsmobile sedan, when security officers chased them away. Aggravated and under sleep deprivation, she deliberately turned her car onto the sidewalk of the famed Las Vegas Strip packed with pedestrians, killing one and injuring 35 more.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Ariz. However, the death toll could be higher, as 3 of the injured pedestrians are in critical condition.
The death penalty is a possibility however it is too early to say, District Attorney Steven Wolfson told USA Today.
According to a report obtained from the police by the AP, Holloway said she had a stressful period that night as she was trying to rest/sleep inside her vehicle in various parking lots, but “kept getting run off by security of the properties she stopped at.”
The report says Holloway ended up on the strip but doesn’t remember driving onto the sidewalk, however she recalls bodies breaking her windshield and bouncing off her car.
According to the police, Holloway came from Oregon and was headed towards Dallas to find her daughters father, after they split.
The incident happened near the Planet Hollywood resort where the 2015 Miss Universe pageant was crowning the wrong winner before a live audience and a TV audience around the world, after the host made a mistake. While the audience was stunned because of the scandal, real life drama was happening in front of the resort.
“It was chaotic,” Antonio Nassar told the Las Vegas Sun. “I was running down the street saying, ‘Move! Move! Get out of the way!'”
“It was mayhem and it was very intentional,” Tourist Justin Cochran told CNN. “People were flying. It was a sound I will never forget. It (the car) wasn’t hitting cars, it was hitting people.”
According to the police, there is a security video that shows Holloway turning twice onto the sidewalk hitting people. Some fought back jumping on the car in effort to make her stop, Lombardo told USA Today.
According to the Times, Holloway is a former fashion model who started in April her own fashion line called “Modeltype.”