The man identified as the suspect accused of ramming a car into a crowd in California was an Iraq veteran who had mental problems, family members said.
Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, a resident of Sunnyvale, took a vehicle and plowed into a crowd in Sunnyvale on April 23 at approximately 6:40 p.m., Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Capt. Jim Choi said. Eight people were injured and six of those were rushed to area hospitals.
There were no apparent connections between the suspect and the victims, authorities said. Most of the victims were released or are in stable condition but a 13-year-old girl was in critical condition.
“Peoples appeared to accelerate as he moved into the crosswalk where the victims were crossing,” Choi said. “It appears that Peoples intentionally ran over the pedestrians.”
A witness told police that Peoples stated something like, “Thank you God.”
Peoples cooperated with police after the attempted murders but did not offer an apology, Choi said.
“He was just even-keeled, but no statements of remorse,” Choi told the San Francisco Chronicle of the arrest. “He was coherent.”
Witness Shantain Vargas told KTVU that she heard Peoples say, “Thank you, Jesus, yes Jesus, praise Jesus.”
“He was not remorseful at all,” she said. “The vibe that I got was that this was a service to God.”
She also described a scene with lots of blood and several people lying on the ground, unable to get up. “I can’t get the image of the victim out of my head,” Vargas said.
Don Draper, 72, another witness, said he went over to confront Peoples after he hit the pedestrians.
“I was yelling at him, ‘What’s the matter with you? What’s the matter with you?’ He was inside the car, the airbags had popped and he was sitting there and saying thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus,” said Draper.
Peoples’s brother, Joshua Peoples, claimed that his brother was “kindhearted.”
“He was a model citizen, one of the most kindhearted people I know,” Peoples told The Mercury News. He said that he and his two siblings grew up religious.
Isaiah Peoples, his brother said, got a degree in accounting at Sacramento State University and served in Iraq for the U.S. Army.
“He was a gunner when they were driving,” his brother Joshua said. “Every time he would call us he was doing security for a post.”
According to records obtained by the Chronicle, Peoples served as a civil affairs specialist from March 2004 to July 2009 and deployed to Iraq from June 2005 to May 2006.
After returning he suffered mental problems, including post-traumatic stress syndrome.
“He’s always just trying to do good for himself,” his brother said. “I really believe him going to the Army … messed up his mental health.”
“When he got back, I didn’t really notice too much of a change, but there were things my mom and sister told me about that they saw him going through,” Joshua Peoples told the News. “They told me he had PTSD.”
At one point about four years ago, Isaiah was treated in a mental hospital for months after not taking his medications.
“Sometimes he’d be getting, like, overly religious going through those episodes,” his brother said. “One time, when he was going through his PTSD, they said he was saying, “I rebuke you, Satan! Get out of here, Satan!”
