A couple was killed and a handful of others were injured just after New Year’s when a man driving a car full of explosives ran into a crowd leaving a concert in upstate New York. Now, it’s being investigated as possible terrorism, according to ABC News.
Two people were killed in the crash at 12:50 a.m., right outside of the Kodak Center in Rochester where about 1,000 people were filing out of a New Year’s Eve show by the rock band Moe. Rochester police were helping pedestrians cross the street when Michael Avery, a Syracuse man, sped his rented Ford Expedition toward the crowd. He smashed into a Toyota C-HR Uber pulling out of a nearby parking lot, according to the New York Post. The couple in the Uber was killed, and the driver was rushed to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Three pedestrians were hit by the car, and one of them is “clinging to life,” according to The Post. Avery was also transported to the hospital and later died.
“The force of the collision caused the two vehicles to go through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk and then into two other vehicles,” David Smith, Rochester Police Cheif, reportedly said at a press conference.
The two cars exploded into an “intense blaze,” according to The Post. It took firefighters nearly an hour to get the flames to subside. Once it was extinguished, investigators reportedly found at least a dozen gasoline canisters scattered across the pavement and inside the Expedition.
Here’s more from The Post on Avery’s possible state of mind during the incident:
Avery, believed to have been an “emotionally disturbed person,” had rented a hotel room in Rochester, where police conducted a search and recovered a suicide note and journal, according to law enforcement sources.
Investigators are reviewing the journal for any clues into the attack and have interviewed family members who said they believed the suspect had bipolar disorder, though he was never officially diagnosed, according to sources.
The relatives say Avery had never expressed any negative beliefs and that they are unaware of any reason he would want to cause harm to others, sources said.
Authorities are planning to conduct a search of a storage unit belonging to Avery in north Syracuse as well.
The investigation is being led by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to ABC News. Right now, police aren’t sure if it was indeed terrorism, but they’re investigating it that way until they can determine what happened and why.
ABC News explains why this incident is being looked at as possible terrorism:
ABC News contributor Richard Frankel said that due to the “numerous” gas cans found at the scene, the deadly incident would need to be looked at as a “potential terrorism matter” until proven otherwise.
”All matters where you’re not sure of what they are, but there’s loss of life and they can’t be explained away immediately as an accident, have to be looked at as if they’re terrorism until they’re proven to not be terrorism,” Frankel said.
”All matters where you’re not sure of what they are, but there’s loss of life and they can’t be explained away immediately as an accident, have to be looked at as if they’re terrorism until they’re proven to not be terrorism,” Frankel said.
This is obviously still a developing story, so Jalopnik will give updates as more information becomes available.