Quote:18 Struck in Hit-Run Rampage
Driver cuts midtown swath
of horror & escapes

A hit-and-run driver suspected of shooting a New Jersey woman sparked mayhem on midtown Manhattan streets yesterday — mowing down 18 pedestrians in a wild, zigzag ride of terror, police said.The driver struck people at six spots — starting near Penn Station and ending in Chelsea, where he plowed into a group of high school students while zooming the wrong way down a side street. None of the injuries was life-threatening.

After the man dumped the battered car and ran, cops found a purse in the back seat containing the wallet of a New Jersey woman who was shot and critically wounded Sunday, police sources said.

"That guy was crazy," said Zhang Ji, a teacher at Liberty High School on W. 18th St. "I turned around, I don't know where he was coming from."

Cops were hunting last night for the driver, who was last seen fleeing into a subway station. Police said they found blood in the car, indicating the suspect may be injured.

The green Buick Regal was registered to Ronald Popadich, 38, of Garfield, N.J., and his elderly mother said he was driving the car yesterday. Police could not confirm that Popadich was the suspected hit-and-run driver.

Sean Cold Wrote:What I truely find odd is that Mayor Bloomberg is cutting down on cops, yet, we didn't seem to have enough yesterday to stop this guy from driving all over town on his little joy ride.

Quote:Yea and he's cutting down services and capacity on Rikers Island because it's not that full... he said he would betough on crime like Guiliani....what a lying prick.

JAYMOHRBUDDY Wrote:Find me one guy whos told the truth during elections.

Quote:18 Struck in Hit-Run Rampage
Driver cuts midtown swath of horror & escapes

Sephiroth Wrote:Usually,I just use the Tank Code in GTA3, and all the pedestrians run away.

Quote:Hit-and-Run Driver
In Second Spree
7 pedestrians hurt near Penn Station

The midtown madman returned to the scene of his crime yesterday, plowing a stolen car into crowds near Penn Station in a virtual replay of his rampage 48 hours earlier, police said.



Popadich, who gave up when he was cornered by cops in the basement of his New Jersey home, admitted stealing the car from a woman at gunpoint early yesterday. He also confessed to critically wounding his married girlfriend Sunday.


'I wanted to hurt more people,' says Ronald Popadich.
The unemployed loner scattered Valentine's Day pedestrians like bowling pins yesterday as he careened through one crosswalk at Seventh Ave. and W. 34th St., then continued into another packed walkway. Seven people were hurt, one critically.

It was the same spot where Popadich started his wild ride that injured at least 18 people in midtown and Chelsea on Tuesday.

"I don't know what is happening in this city," said social worker Mary George, 55, who suffered a broken ankle in yesterday's crash.



"It was like a domino effect," said Gerard Caldwell, 31, of the Bronx. "He started hitting people and they kept falling and falling."

Cops found a loaded .32-caliber gun — thought to be the weapon used in the carjacking and the girlfriend's shooting — in a coat left in the battered Volkswagen Jetta.

They also found the key to a room in an East Village hotel that features sadomasochistic sex paraphernalia.

"Here is someone who needed to be removed from the streets, and removed quickly," said Bergen County prosecutor William Schmidt

Quote:I say we wait for his conviction, bring him out behind the court house and just beat his silly ass within an inch of his miserable life.

Hey Ladi Wrote:

Quote:I say we wait for his conviction, bring him out behind the court house and just beat his silly ass within an inch of his miserable life.

Then back over him w/the car.

Quote:Find a semi-tractor trailer heading cross country and strap him to the grill like one of those ovesized teddy bears. Just the high speed wind drying out his eyeballs and all the bugs in his face will have him screaming for his mom.

DGW Wrote:CDL liscense.

Quote:"He confessed to both hit-and- runs, the one on Tuesday and the one today," a law-enforcement official said. "He said he intentionally did the carjacking this morning in Secaucus, and he intentionally went back to the same area to hurt more people. The underlying motive is he just hates people."

Quote:The underlying motive is he just hates people