Thursday, September 22, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

DEATH ON THE STRIP: Car plows into crowd

Driver arrested in fatal incident; authorities allege it was intentional

Medical personnel tend to injured pedestrians after a car ran onto a sidewalk Wednesday on the Strip near Flamingo Road. One person died in the crash, and 13 others were hurt, including at least four critically. Las Vegas police said the crash was intentional. Photo by JEANIE KILGORE/SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL Medical personnel tend to injured pedestrians after a car ran onto a sidewalk Wednesday on the Strip near Flamingo Road. Photo by JEANIE KILGORE/SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL Las Vegas police escort Stephen Ressa of Rialto, Calif., to a patrol car after a car plowed into 14 people walking Wednesday along the Strip. Authorities charged him with one count of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder. Photo by Isaac Brekken. Authorities line Las Vegas Boulevard after a car ran over 14 people walking on the sidewalk Wednesday outside Bally's. Photo by Isaac Brekken. Paramedics give cardiopulmonary resuscitation to a man as they wheel him into the University Medical Center trauma unit. The man was walking on the Strip when he and 13 others were hit by a car Wednesday. Photo by John Locher. A distraught man watches as someone he knows is taken into the University Medical Center Trauma Center. Photo by John Locher.

A car jumped a curb and plowed into a group of pedestrians on the Strip Wednesday, 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.

The other five victims were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, police said. At least four of the victims suffered critical injuries, authorities said.

The driver tried to flee but was captured by an off-duty Las Vegas police officer who was dining at an outdoor restaurant at the neighboring Paris, Young said.

Martin Wright, who witnessed the crash, ran to the sidewalk and tackled the driver before he could get away, Young said.

Witnesses said others helped pin the driver, whom authorities identified as Stephen Ressa, 27, of Rialto, Calif.

Police arrested Ressa and took him to the Clark County Detention Center. They charged him with one count of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder.

Police determined Ressa stole the car from his mother before driving to Las Vegas, Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy said.

The crash and investigation forced police to close Las Vegas Boulevard in both directions south of Flamingo. Las Vegas Boulevard remained closed late Wednesday.

The identity of the dead person was unavailable, but UMC officials said that each of the victims treated at the hospital was an adult and had out-of-state addresses.

"At this point, from what we can tell, they're all tourists," said UMC spokeswoman Cheryl Persinger.

UMC officials described the survivors as five adult females and three males. Five were listed in good or fair condition, while three others had life-threatening injuries, she said.

The victims taken to Sunrise included one male and four females. Officials said the male victim was in critical condition, two of the females were in serious condition, and two of the females were released from the hospital.

In a UMC waiting room late Wednesday, shaken visitors awaited word on the condition of the victims. Two women sobbed uncontrollably, while one made a call on her cell phone and said: "It was a stolen car. It just plowed through all of these people. It was awful."

Others considered themselves lucky.

Todd Sexe, a tourist from Minnesota in Las Vegas for a family reunion, said he was walking on the sidewalk and heard bodies smacking against the car. He said he instinctively dived out of the way.

The vehicle knocked Sexe's wife, Angie Callahan, onto her back, causing her to hit her head on the sidewalk.

She was among the victims admitted to Sunrise Hospital, and she was released a few hours later. A black tire mark stretched the length of her white tennis shoe.

"She was the lucky one," Sexe said of his wife, who never lost consciousness but had no memory of the crash.

"What a way to start a family reunion," said Loe, who was also in Las Vegas for the gathering.

Wednesday's carnage echoed a 1980 Reno crash that landed Priscilla Ford on Nevada's death row.

Ford, a former teacher, killed six people and injured 23 others after she drove her Lincoln Continental down a crowded sidewalk on Thanksgiving Day. A seventh victim later died.

Ford was convicted in 1982 and received the death penalty. On Jan. 29, the 75-year-old died of emphysema while incarcerated at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Facility in North Las Vegas. During her imprisonment, she was the only woman on Nevada's death row.

In 2000, former Las Vegas exotic dancer Juanita Kim McDonald killed a tourist walking along the Strip when the car she was driving jumped a curb.

McDonald pleaded guilty to two counts of driving under the influence of a controlled substance in 2002. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with parole eligibility after five years.

Review-Journal staff writers Frank Curreri and Lisa Kim Bach contributed to this report.