Sister Of Teen Killed In Times Square Crash ‘Doing Okay’ After Surgery

NEW YORK, NY — Ava Elsman, the 13-year-old from Portage, Michigan, who was injured Thursday in a horrific Times Square accident that killed her older sister, is out of surgery and “doing okay,” according to reports on social media. The girl’s sister, 18-year-old Alyssa Elsman, was killed when an out-of-control car slammed into a crowd gathered on the sidewalk.

The Elsman siblings, who were in New York City with their mother and friends, were due to return to Michigan the day of the accident. Alyssa was a 2016 graduate of Portage Central High School, and Ava is a Portage Central Middle School student.

Thomas Elsman, the victims’ father, updated his younger daughter’s condition in a comment on a Facebook post, MLive.com reported. He said she was “doing okay.”

The rogue driver is facing murder charges. Bronx resident Richard Rojas, 26, was apprehended after his deadly drive through Times Square, authorities said, with the help of civilians and NYPD officers who chased him down when he tried to flee the area. Police have charged Rojas with murder, 20 counts of attempted murder and five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.

Grief counselors were at both Portage schools to help students cope, officials said.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to the Elsman family,” Portage Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bielang said in a statement. “It is the most devastating kind of sad when a wonderful person in our community is lost so young, and under such heartbreaking circumstances.”

Eric Alburtus, the principal at the high school Alyssa Elsman attended, said students, faculty and staff are “all kind of a mess,” the Detroit Free Press and its sister paper, the Battle Creek Enquirer, reported.

Alburtus said Alyssa was “a wonderful young lady.”

“When you first got to know her, you would perceive that she was shy or quiet,” he said. “The more you got to know her, the more you would realize she was funny, and thoughtful, and compassionate to other people.”

Messages of support and condolence poured in by the hundreds from around the world on Alyssa’s Facebook page.

Her death stunned those closest to her, including Olivia Lemke, 18, who met Alyssa on the playground of Lake Center Elementary School and remained friends with her through high school. “I went to her for everything — literally,” she said. “She was honest.”

Lemke’s mother, Kristen, said the girls were constant companions. “They were together a lot,” she said. “If one wasn’t (at one house), the other was (at the other house). They spent a lot of time together.”

For the latest on the crash, go to Midtown Manhattan Patch.

Photo of Alyssa Elsman via Portage Central High School