Police say there’s no evidence that “political or social biases” were part of an assailant’s motive for deliberately initiating a fiery crash in Rochester, New York, which killed two people and injured nine pedestrians as they left a concert early Monday morning.
“So far we’ve uncovered no evidence of an ideology and no nexus to terrorism, either international or domestic,” said Jeremy Bell, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Rochester office, in a Tuesday press conference.
Fears of a possible terrorist attack began swirling Monday after authorities found filled gas canisters inside an SUV that the suspect had rented from the Rochester airport, and President Joe Biden was reportedly briefed on the incident.
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Local authorities on Tuesday identified 35-year-old Michael Avery as the man who carried out the “horrific” attack, ramming his rented SUV into an Uber that killed both of its passengers and sent his own vehicle up in flames. Cops said he died on Monday night in a Rochester hospital.
Rochester Police Chief David Smith said Avery’s motive remains unknown, adding that the assailant, who lived about 90 miles away in Syracuse, had no known ties to Rochester despite staying in a hotel there for nearly a week.
Law enforcement sources told CNN and the New York Post that a suicide note and journal were recovered in Avery’s hotel room, but Smith said Tuesday that a note of that nature wasn’t recovered at the WoodSpring Suites Avery was staying at. Smith said evidence recovered in a search of Avery’s personal vehicle is still being combed through.
Smith was adamant that Avery’s motive “remains unknown,” but said interviews with his loved ones suggested he “may have been suffering from possible undiagnosed mental health issues.”
The chief said there’s no evidence to suggest Avery had an accomplice. He was recorded filling up gas canisters alone around Rochester between Dec. 27 and the fatal ramming, Smith said.
Smith said it took firefighters an hour to extinguish the flames of Avery’s SUV, possibly because of the gas canisters that were inside of it. He added that off-duty first responders gave medical care to Avery and victims at the scene, which was minutes after a concert by moe.—a tribute band of the Grateful Dead—had ended.
Authorities say the crash occurred at 12:52 a.m., with Avery speeding past police officers who were coordinating traffic outside the concert venue. Smith said Avery “sped up, crossed into the oncoming lane of traffic, and appears to have intentionally been driving towards the pedestrian crossing.”
Avery crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander, sending both vehicles “through a group of pedestrians that were in the crosswalk,” police said in an earlier statement. The two passengers in the Outlander were killed and its driver was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
