|
Authorities have not identified a motive or any link to
terrorism that could have prompted the suspect, Michael Avery,
to carry out the attack that killed 2 people and injured nine
early on Monday, said Rochester Police Chief David Smith at a
briefing. Conversations with his family suggested he might have
had "undiagnosed mental health issues," Smith said.
Avery, who was from Syracuse, a city about 60 miles (96.5 km)
east of Rochester, rented an SUV at the Rochester airport on
Dec. 30 and spent the day buying gasoline from stores around the
region, according to Smith.
At around 12:52 a.m. on Jan. 1, he arrived at Rochester's Kodak
Center as concert-goers were leaving the venue, and struck a
ride-share vehicle pulling out of the parking lot, killing the
two passengers. The force of the crash pushed the vehicles into
the crowd, injuring at least 9 pedestrians.
Officials at Tuesday's press conference said local and federal
authorities, including an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, would
continue probing the incident.
"Everyone up here still has lots of questions. Why Rochester?
Why Syracuse? Why all the gas cans? These are all things that
will continue to be investigated," said Rochester Mayor Malik
Evans.
Jeremy Bell, the special agent in charge of the local branch of
the FBI, confirmed that the task force was involved in the
investigation, but said that was not unusual for a case of this
nature.
"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," Bell said.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
