PICTURED: Jessica Valenzuela, mother-of-three killed by homeless female driver in Las Vegas

A mother-of-three was killed and 37 others injured after a homeless female driver intentionally plowed into pedestrians on the sidewalk of the Las Vegas Strip, police said.

Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, died in the crash on Sunday night, after Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, of Portland, allegedly hit pedestrians on two different sections of the sidewalk while heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard near Bellagio Way.

At a press conference at 10am PST on Monday, Clark County District Attoey Steve Wolfson said initial charges include murder with use of a deadly weapon as well as multiple counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, child abuse or neglect and failure to remain at the scene of an accident. 

He said: 'When a person drives a 2,000-pound-plus motor vehicle intentionally onto a sidewalk, killing and injuring scores of people, that's murder.' Holloway is being held without bail at Clark County Jail.

While the motive remains unclear, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said he does not believe the incident was a case of terrorism. However, he said he was not able to absolutely rule out terrorism at this stage due to a lack of information about the suspect.

Authorities said people jumped on the car and banged on its windows as it plowed through pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Lombardo told reporters that Holloway was stoic and didn't appear to be distressed when she was arrested. He said she told a valet at a hotel to call 911 after she mowed down people on Las Vegas Boulevard.

He added Holloway had made statements about her motive at the scene, but was 'not comfortable' with divulging those comments. However, he insisted that those statements did not suggest the motive was terrorism.

He said Holloway had alluded to a 'disassociation' with the father of her child, who is now in protective custody.

She did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol, police said, but a drug recognition expert on the scene determined Holloway was under the influence of a 'stimulant,' although blood test results are pending.

Jessica Valenzuela (pictured with her husband and children), 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, a mother-of-three, died in the crash Sunday night.

Holloway told authorities that she had been in Las Vegas for around a week, Lombardo added, and police believe she was living in her vehicle with her daughter. Lombardo said she may have been passing through Las Vegas on her way to join the child's father in Texas.

Earlier on Monday, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg identified Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, as the woman who died. The coroner said the suburban Phoenix woman was visiting Las Vegas with her husband. The couple had celebrated their ten-year wedding anniversary earlier this month.

A cause of death is pending, with an autopsy scheduled for Monday. 

A GoFundMe page set up by Valenzuela's sister-in-law to help cover funeral and transportation costs said she was a mother of three girls. 

The incident took place at around 6.40pm on Sunday in front of the Paris Hotel & Casino and Planet Hollywood, where the 2015 Miss Universe beauty pageant was underway at the time.

At a press conference at the crash site, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief Brett Zimmerman said this was an intentional act. He added that video of a car crashing into pedestrians 'looks like it's very intentional.' 

On Monday, Zimmerman said Monday that the car was fully on the sidewalk twice, including once when it traveled for 200 feet. He says the car went onto the sidewalk first near a restaurant at the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino and then again at the driveway entrance to the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino. 

 

Lakeisha N Holloway

 

Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, of Portland, Clark County, has been identified as the driver, who had a toddler in the back seat when she allgedly plowed into pedestrians on two different sections of the sidewalk on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday

Police said Holloway's three-year-old daughter was in the car, but was not injured and has been taken into protective custody

Meanwhile, LaShay Hardaway, Holloway's cousin, said: 'This is not like her. She's a very successful woman, she's always been successful, she's an overachiever.

'It's not her character. We are all trying to figure out what happened. Something very tragic must have taken place in her life because this is not her.

'This is not something she would ever do. We are so sorry for those families affected by this'.

Sheria Agum, another of Holloway's cousins, said: 'She's sweet, she's a loving mother. She's a very strong mum'.

Miss Agum added that she last saw Holloway a month ago and after that she changed her number. Holloway's mother told her she had not heard from her since and she 'went off the radar'.

Miss Agum said that Holloway had been staying in Texas until recently but upon her retu to the West coast she noticed a change in her character.

She said: 'I have never seen my cousin like that. Her whole attitude changed. She was having problems down there. When she came back she was different'. 

KGW.com reported that Holloway petitioned for a name change in October to Paris Paradise Morton. In 2012, Holloway received a Role Model award from the Portland Opportunities Industrial Center after overcoming the circumstances of her childhood to pursue a career in the forest service.

'I would like to thank the Forest Service for sending me an application and taking a chance on me,' she said at the time. 'And I'd like to thank POIC for the love and support and for being more than a program, for being a blessing.'

According to The Skanner News, Holloway had been homeless during her freshman year in high school and was left to fend for herself due to an alcoholic mother.

This moing, Lombardo revealed the victims are from Oregon, Florida, Colorado, Califoia, Washington, Mexico and Quebec, Canada.

Six of the victims injured who were in critical condition are now stable, and four others have been treated for minor injuries and released, McGrath said.

Four college students from Pacific University, based in Forest Grove, Oregon, were among those hurt. Spokesman Joe Lang says the students are members of the wrestling team and were in Las Vegas to compete in a touament.

Lang said 19 athletes and coaches were walking together Sunday night when the woman swerved onto the sidewalk. Three of the four injured students were taken to a hospital. Two students were later released, and the other was kept oveight for observation.

He says the team will not compete in Monday's touament. 

Earlier, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Dan McGrath said the susppect was driving a 1996 Oldsmobile that was registered in Oregon and that she had recently moved to the area. 

He said she continued to drive east on Flamingo Road in the car and was eventually taken into custody by police and detectives at a nearby hotel. She is currently undergoing sobriety tests for both alcohol and drugs. 

McGrath also said the pedestrians were not at fault and were not in the road.

Zimmerman added that a three-year-old child was in the back seat of the car at the time of the crash. Neither the driver not the child were injured

Zimmerman said police are now reviewing video footage from surveillance cameras.

'We will comb through that footage to get a detailed idea of what occurred,' Zimmerman said. 'Right now from what we know, we're looking at it possibly being intentional.'

'This is a huge tragedy that's occurred on our Strip,' Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Peter Boffelli said at the first press conference on Sunday. 'We have brought all of our investigative components out... to ensure we have covered all aspects of this investigation.' 

Those in a critical condition were treated at University Medical Center, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and Spring Valley Hospital.

Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center spokeswoman Stacy Acquista said it has treated 13 people, including nine men and four women. So far, 10 have been treated and released, but three were downgraded from good to fair condition and will remain hospitalized.

Danita Cohen, spokeswoman for University Medical Center, said 15 crash victims were brought to its trauma center, one of whom died. Three remained in critical condition as of 7am on Monday. Two others were treated and released.

The nine patients who remained in a serious condition included an 11-year-old child. 

Spring Valley Hospital spokeswoman Gretchen Papez said three people had received care for minor injuries and were being discharged as of 10.50pm. 

More than 70 first responders arrived to the gruesome crash site. One witness described it as like a scene from a movie.

'You could see people literally bouncing off,' one witness told KTNV. 'She was running over everybody.'

Justin Cochrane, a property manager from Santa Barbara, Califoia, said he was having dinner at a sidewalk restaurant outside the Paris Hotel and across the street from the famous Bellagio Fountain when the incident took place.

The car appeared to be going 30 to 40 mph when it first hit the pedestrians on Las Vegas Boulevard, Cochrane said. 

'It was just massacring people,' he added. The vehicle then went farther down the road and drove back into another crowd of pedestrians on the sidewalk, he added.

Cochrane said he could not understand why the car went into the crowd a second time. 'Why would it slow to go around and then accelerate again?' he said. 'I thought it's a crazy person.'

He saw children and adults injured and on the ground as the car drove away. 

Rabia Qureshi, who was visiting the city with her surgeon husband from Wisconsin, said they stopped the car to help after witnessing the chaos.

'The car was like a bowling ball and the human bodies were like pins,' Qureshi told KSNV. 'Literally they were flying through the air.'

Her husband, Atif Qureshi, added that he did not bother to tu the car off after darting to aid the victims.

'The first thing that came to mind is that I should be out there helping them,' he told KSNV.

Another witness told KLAS that the woman driving the car did not seem like she wanted to stop.  

'Everyone was running... and as I was running, I saw a car up on the sidewalk coming toward us,' a witness told KLAS.