Two people were killed in Rochester, N.Y., after an explosive-filled SUV drove into a crowd of people leaving a New Year’s rock concert. The incident is under investigation as a possible act of terrorism.
“A couple was killed and numerous others injured just hours into the New Year when a car filled with explosives barreled into a crowd of people leaving a rock concert in upstate New York, police said,” reports the New York Post. “The fiery crash occurred at 12:50 a.m. outside the Kodak Center in Rochester, where roughly 1,000 people were filing out after a New Year’s Eve show by the rock band moe [sic].”
Rochester officers were helping pedestrians cross the street when Michael Avery, a suspected bipolar man from Syracuse, sped his rented Ford Expedition toward the crowd and smashed into an Uber pulling out of a nearby parking lot, law enforcement sources said.
“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,” Police Chief David Smith said at a press conference.
The cars exploded into an intense blaze that took the fire department nearly an hour to extinguish.
A couple riding in the Uber were killed, while their driver was rushed to the hospital in non-life-threatening condition, sources and police said.
Three pedestrians were struck by the flying cars — one of whom was left clinging to life.
Avery was transported to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
He died of his injuries around 8 p.m. Monday, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Avery’s motive is not yet known, but he had rented a hotel room in the city, and authorities found a suicide note and other materials there. Nevertheless, the FBI is investigating the incident, though it hasn’t found any links to terrorism so far.
Here is some crazy dashcam footage of the actual incident.
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Potentially disturbing dashboard cam footage of the incident in Rochester. Note the Ford Explorer that’s on fire and the person walking out of it. pic.twitter.com/oOt1PBpPRj
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 2, 2024
“I can confirm our Joint Terrorism Task Force is involved, but that’s not abnormal in a case like this. What I can tell you is, so far we’ve uncovered no evidence of an ideology and no nexus to terrorism, either international or domestic,” Jeremy Bell of the FBI’s Rochester bureau said Tuesday morning.
There have also been reports of explosions on Roosevelt Island on New York City’s East River Tuesday morning.
Reported explosions on Roosevelt Island early Tuesday brought droves of firefighters to the scene, but it remained unclear what the potential incidents involved.
The FDNY was called to The Landings, an apartment community on Main Street, minutes before 6 a.m. for a report of shaking and explosions, the department said.
The blasts were said to have occurred south of the Roosevelt Island Bridge and Tramway, according to fire officials — and residents of both Manhattan and Queens sounded the alarm, WNBC reported.
The scene was eventually turned over to Con Edison, the FDNY said.
A Con Edison spokesman told The Post that no service disruptions were reported, and no one lost power.
Crews are on the scene investigating the source of the reported blasts.
These incidents come weeks after an explosion took place at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, at Niagara Falls. Initial indications suggested a potential terror link, and authorities even explored the possibility of a second vehicle’s involvement; however, investigators later determined that a reckless driver caused the accident.
