Dave Urbanski

February 10, 2023

-The Blaze

 

An Arizona couple in their 60s was intentionally hit by the driver of a truck Monday who claimed the devil told him to kill people.

What are the details?

Surveillance video from the home of neighbor Linda Gourley shows a dark grey GMC truck following the couple just after 7:30 a.m. in Glendale, KNXV-TV reported.

“To know that somebody was on the street, and I felt like he was almost stalking,” Gourley — who’s lived in her home near 51st Avenue and Bell Road for 50 years — recalled to the station. “He was so slow. It wasn’t normal.”

The couple’s attorney, Chris Goodnow, identified the victims as Lisa Lenahan and Kirt Heaward and said they often took walks in their neighborhood, KNXV noted.

Additional video shows the couple walking on the sidewalk when the driver of the truck — 49-year-old Refugio Torres — speeds up and hits Lenahan, the station said.

Her shoe flew off as a result of the impact, KNXV said, adding that Torres then drove away.

Soon Torres returns and drives at Heaward, who tries to get out of the way before he’s slammed through a block wall, the station said.

“It was bad enough to see him hit the first go-round, but to know that he turned around and came back,” Gourley recalled to KNXV. “It was like, ‘What in the world is going on?’”

The station said video shows Heaward’s leg in the rubble as neighbors try to help and call 911, the station said.

What happened next?

Phoenix police found Torres at a home down the street, KNXV reported, adding that court documents indicate Torres told police he was having issues with his brain and the devil told him to kill three people.

Heaward suffered a broken leg and ribs, while Lenahan suffered a brain bleed and is unable to speak, the station said.

“Lisa, unfortunately, seemed to suffer worse injuries because she suffered neurological injuries, including a brain bleed that led to her having to be put into a medically induced coma,” Goodnow told KNXV.

Goodnow added to the station that the couple has four children and six grandchildren.

Their family started a GoFundMe page as the couple deal with their injuries; as of Friday afternoon, just over $7,200 has been raised.

c. THE BLAZE