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‘I was trying to get help,’ Times Square driver says in jailhouse interview

The maniac driver who mowed down pedestrians in Times Square knew he was losing his marbles in the weeks leading up to his senseless rampage, he told The Post during an exclusive jailhouse interview on Saturday.

“I was trying to get help,” a weepy Richard Rojas claimed from Rikers Island. “I wanted to fix my life. I wanted to get a job. Get a girlfriend.”

He insisted he recently spoke to a mental health counselor at a local veteran’s center.

“He said he’d call me on Monday…Monday hasn’t come yet.”

Unable to get the help he claimed to need, the 26-year-old ex-Navyman climbed into his maroon Honda Accord last Thursday and unleashed carnage at the Crossroads of the World, killing an 18-year-old tourist and seriously injuring 22 others.

He drove south along Seventh Avenue, and just before noon, suddenly made a U-turn at West 42nd Street, then accelerated north in the wrong direction, driving along three blocks of pedestrian-clogged sidewalk, slamming into anyone who got in his way.

The vehicle hit a stanchion and turned on its side. Rojas, allegedly high on PCP-laced marijuana, emerged from the driver’s seat.

But he wasn’t done yet. With arms outstretched, he ran from the wrecked car and wildly charged the terrified throng, before finally being subdued.

On his first morning in jail, he said he couldn’t remember a thing about the horror he wrought. Wearing a prison-issue grey jumpsuit with a white t-shirt showing underneath, he spoke deliberately, occasionally staring off into space.

Now on suicide watch, Rojas faces a second-degree murder charge for killing Alyssa Elsman, 18, of Michigan, and 20 counts of attempted murder for his other victims, including four who were critically hurt.

“I just want to apologize to all the victims’ families . . . I want to apologize to my mom,” said Rojas, who said he was now “shocked, confused and hungry.”

The unemployed vet had allegedly yelled at police, “You were supposed to shoot me! I wanted to kill them,” sources said. He later told cops he had laced the pot he smoked with PCP.

“I guess it was laced with something,” said Rojas, who claims not to recall any of the statements he made after he was arrested.

“The last thing I remember is driving in my car,” he recalled. “Then, I woke up in the precinct . . . I was terrified.”

Rojas seemed surprised at the cuts on his body.

He had dark circles under his brown eyes, and three small cuts on his face, Rojas kept repeating, “I can’t believe it.” He lifted his pants and sleeves to reveal the tiny wounds he allegedly doesn’t remember getting.

“They’re all over,” he marveled.

He said he grabbed a bite to eat with his mom at their Highbridge home Thursday morning when he decided to go for a drive.

“It was just a normal morning. I had a sandwich. … I wanted to clear my head,” Rojas said. “I told my mom, I said I was just going around.”

He said he wants to see the videos of the fatal destruction.

“I know it was my car. I know I left in it. But I want to verify that I’m the person,” he said, carefully.

When asked what he remembered from the drive, Rojas would say only there were thoughts “in my mind.”

He declined to speak further without consulting a lawyer.

But his eyes welled with tears and his voice cracked when he was asked about the woman he killed. He sat silently.

Eventually, he sobbed, slouching down in the visitor’s booth, shaking.

“I can’t believe it. I’m 26-years-old.”