Driver Who Struck 7 in NYC Hit-And-Run Said ‘Jesus Made Me Do It’: Police

Attempted murder charges have been filed against a hit-and-run driver who drove into seven pedestrians in Midtown before getting into a car accident in Queens.

The driver allegedly told police after the incident that “Jesus made me do it.”

Imani Lucas, 29, allegedly told police while in custody that she closed her eyes and prayed to God during the incident. As reported by the New York Post, police said that Lucas was acting irrationally.

Police and her mother, Melissa Lucas, believe that Imani suffered from a mental health episode when she ran a red light and hit six men and one woman with her car on Sunday. Her mother said Imani has bipolar disorder and may have been experiencing a manic episode.

“I asked her, I said, ‘Imani, where are you?’ She didn't know where she was. She didn't know where she was going. She said, ‘I'm just driving. I'm just driving,’” Melissa recalled to Gothamist. “And I said, 'Where are you?’ ‘I don't know. I don't know.’ And then that's when I think I heard a police officer coming up to her talking, and then I heard something like Bayside, Queens.”

Melissa added, “She said she was hearing voices.”

Her mother told the outlet that Imani was on medication and progressing toward her independence. Imani lives in New Jersey with her parents but works in New York.

NYPD said six pedestrians were taken to the hospital in stable condition, while the seventh refused medical treatment. Two of the pedestrians were identified by La Voce di New York as 51-year-old Matteo Maj and 34-year-old Guilia Gardani, an Italian couple on the final leg of their U.S. trip.

Maj and Gardani were scheduled to head home on Monday after traveling through Chicago to Boston, but their stop in New York ended with the two of them in the hospital. Maj underwent surgery to his face and has surgeries scheduled for his fibula and tibia, while Gardani required a 5-hour surgery for a cervical spine injury.

“Imani would never do anything intentionally to hurt anybody or anything,” Melissa told Gothamist. “Nothing like this has happened before.”

Police said Imani underwent a psych evaluation and is being screened for mental health concerns, WABC-TV reported. She tested negative for alcohol.

No one was injured in the second accident. She has been charged with seven counts of attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident, and reckless driving.