LAS VEGAS - A man suspected of killing two tourists and injuring 12 others on the Las Vegas Strip told police he steered his car into the crowd on the sidewalk because they were staring at him like demons.

Stephen M. Ressa, 27, also told police he saw people with their hands in their pockets and thought they might be armed with guns, according to an arrest report obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

"They were staring at him like they were `demons,'" the report said. "Ressa admitted he became angry at them, and intentionally steered the vehicle toward them."

Ressa, of Rialto, Calif., was arrested Wednesday evening shortly after the car barreled through the crowd and crashed into a cement barrier in front of Bally's hotel-casino. He remained jailed without bail on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

During two interviews with police, Ressa told detectives he had borrowed his mother's car and drove to Las Vegas, where he spent a few days gambling at various casinos and slept in the car.

Although Ressa told police he had a drug and alcohol problem, he said he had used neither Wednesday. He told police he had been prescribed medication, but had stopped taking it.

Results of alcohol and drug tests were pending.

Rialto police Detective Sgt. Reinhard Burkholder said Thursday that Ressa was wanted for questioning in an assault on his mother, 54.

"He punched her numerous times in the face and choked her into unconsciousness and stood over her with a butcher knife," Burkholder said.

Earlier, Deputy Police Chief Greg McCurdy told reporters that Ressa appeared lucid and correctly answered questions about his ability to determine right and wrong. But Ressa's statements were "bizarre in nature," McCurdy said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/pedestrians_struck_strip

::)

I was just at Bally's Sunday.  There are so many people there, it's scary. 

sounds like the demon was the one driving   ::) {stupid smileys don't work}

This Ressa character sounds like a real loose cannon/nut.  He belongs in jail for sure

The guy sounds like a real "winner".  ::)

Eh, sounds like a garden-variety nutjob.  So sad those tourists got mixed up in his hallucinations.  Sigh, ok boys, strap him down and dope him up!
::)

Mental illness can cause so much tragedy.

Mental illness can cause so much tragedy.

I have seen it first hand.

oh great, put him away confined and all the people with him will morph into devils and he'll go nuts on them too...

We have a semi-mental person in our church who walks in the door at any given time of the ceremony (all heads turn of course, naturally), but no one does anything about it...OUT OF FEAR OF CHASTISEMENT?...If they keep him outside, it wasn't really a disruption, imagine someone calling for him to be kept outside, they'll get "He has a right to come in like anyone else",  they just take it as, 'Oh there goes whomever??'..so no one feels like they are banning slow people for not understanding..yet he's sane enough to walk the streets...if one day, he goes nuts on the congregation, they'd scream 'someone should have never permitted him here" but until then, they let him run anywhere anytime.

Thanks Mr. Reagan! You all know what I mean...

oh great, put him away confined and all the people with him will morph into devils and he'll go nuts on them too...

We have a semi-mental person in our church who walks in the door at any given time of the ceremony (all heads turn of course, naturally), but no one does anything about it...OUT OF FEAR OF CHASTISEMENT?...If they keep him outside, it wasn't really a disruption, imagine someone calling for him to be kept outside, they'll get "He has a right to come in like anyone else",  they just take it as, 'Oh there goes whomever??'..so no one feels like they are banning slow people for not understanding..yet he's sane enough to walk the streets...if one day, he goes nuts on the congregation, they'd scream 'someone should have never permitted him here" but until then, they let him run anywhere anytime.

Thanks Mr. Reagan! You all know what I mean...


what does he do that is so upsetting to you?

If you are asking about the church attendee...what is upsetting is, we are all gathered to celebrate the Holy mass together when in the middle of a reading that all are basically concentrating on, this person comes through the door(now if this was an office meeting, you would expect some important message,) however, he enters,walks across the front of the congregation-when they have a back and side door, literally walking past the front of the entire front row. people then look his way, and figure okay he is comng to sit down as well-.

In HIS case he was in front of the church 'prior to' the ceremony starting- EACH TIME.  He takes a seat, then when it is time to receive the ceremonial bread, he then leaves the seat to blend in with those seated ahead of him - if he knew he was to wait or doesn't, no one will speak up, but he gets the glaring look from others as to  WHAT THE????.

The priests are well aware of him and I'm not certain if any have spoken to him but I know of cases when someone singing a little too loudly with the gathered and finally someone speaking with them to tone it down!

I might equate it in laymens terms as someone standing up in the front of a movie theater..SOMEONE HAS TO SAY SOMETHING BECAUSE IT IS A DISTRACTION..Yes, it is innocent he wants to pray, but to follow common etiquette rules is what is needed, yet as meentioned,if in this time of PC and the number of people involved who may want to say something, they may feel someone already spoke with them or someone else may raise the point, or even feel like THEY'LL be looked at as LET THE MAN COME IN WE NEED ANYONE WE CAN GET!