A driver who allegedly plowed into a Manhattan building, injuring three people — and who long-claimed Google was a “torturing” him — now faces attempted arson charges, with a court document revealing the car reeked of gas and had lighters inside.
Jason Bitton, 34, crashed the auto, hitting a 12-year-old girl and two women, 47 and 50, before ramming into a building at West 15th Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea on Tuesday — blocks from Google’s headquarters — when cops descended on the white Ford Fusion, officials said.
Bitton was arrested at the scene and arraigned on an additional charge of attempted arson Thursday night, a complaint shows.
The other charges against Bitton — an Upper East Side resident who at one point drove for Uber — are assault, attempted assault and reckless endangerment, according to the doc.
Through the Ford’s tinted windows, first responders found Button shirtless, with his pants down below his knees and his genitals exposed, the filing states.
One of the officers broke the passenger window to help Bitton – and immediately smelled a strong odor of gasoline, according to the paperwork filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Bitton appeared wet — or sweaty — before police got him out of the car, according to the complaint.
A sign with the words GOOGLE TORTERD ME painted on it – spelling error included – was found on the ground next to the car.
Also next to the vehicle, investigators spotted an open, red gasoline can as well as a closed one on the floor at the back of the Ford, prosecutors said.
Two or three lighters were also found in the car, and the cap and spout to the open gasoline can were found in the car’s center console, the filing states.
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All three crash victims were taken to Lenox Health Greenwich Village, where they were listed in stable condition, police said.
Prosecutors requested that Bitton be held without bail.
But Judge Paul McDonnell set bail at $50,000 cash, $150,000 insurance company bond or $300,000 partially secured surety bond, according to the Manhattan DA’s office and online records.
Bitton’s Facebook page shows he claimed for years that Google was torturing him to the point of physical and mental duress.
“I guess Google thinks it’s ok to torture someone across their entire Android O.S ecosystem system, no security updates for almost 4 years,” he wrote in a December 2021 post.
“America has fallen,” he wrote in a July 2020 post, which includes a video of him outside the NYPD’s 20th Precinct, where he showed up to file a complaint for cybercrime.
“The Constitution is Undermined by Big Tech. NYC Bureuracurcy [sic] is focused on using AI in wrong places especially Social Control, why look around you.”
A 2019 complaint filed by Bitton against Google in Brooklyn Supreme Court includes accusations the company had “covert access to injure and harass” through his devices.
A second court filing indicates Bitton’s motions were denied.
“While the court sympathizes with Mr. Bitton’s persisting injuries and physical ailments, he simply cannot bring his complaints in the present form,” the document states.
