Obviously we still don't know the full story, and I do feel there is more to it, but from another article: ""While driving in the area of Barnes and Noble, Mr. Rein stated his right foot became stuck on the accelerator and his vehicle accelerated," State Trooper Andrew Chiachio wrote in a police report. "Mr. Rein stated he used his left foot to try to brake, but was unable to stop the vehicle and crashed through the front of the Apple store.""

The gas pedal on my car got stuck once (I later figured out why and it was really stupid and 100% not the cars fault), and I immediately reacted by braking, shifting into neutral (automatic transmission) and steering the car off the road. I was just accelerating at a green light, so it all happened under 10 mph, but it was scary.

I think we need to make people re-take periodic driving tests/courses to re-educate older drivers. And yes, 50s is older.

It is still very hypothetical since we have no idea what happened, but official statements try to stick to actual evidence, and with an older person confusing the pedals, there is no real physical evidence of what happened. So they can only say that it did not appear to be intentional because it was not intentional, and the only person that truly knows was the driver, who might not be fully aware of what they were doing at the time (or the shock of it, and humans incredibly fallible memory make true recollection impossible).

I wouldn't agree that a deliberate turn was needed. Based on the Streetview of the mall, the driver might have passed the Barnes and Noble, and turned left to go past the Apple Store (since that seems like the flow of traffic in that plaza). Could have been an elderly person that got startled by something, like a pedestrian, and hit the gas instead of the brake and gone straight over the curb in the store, and kept hitting the gas because they were confused. And since the car was described as a large SUV, it probably jumped the curb with no problem.

Obviously we are just guessing, but I would suspect age instead of something malicious.