Tag Archives: Rochester

Investigation into man driving SUV that plowed into crowd finds 11 cans of gasoline in the back and a suicide note

Terrorism-Car-Crash-Rochester

Important Takeaways:

  • Cops recover suicide note after deranged man drove car packed with explosives into crowd at Rochester concert, killing 2
  • Law enforcement sources initially reported that the crash was being investigated as possible domestic terrorism but said Tuesday there was no terror link.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • After the fire was extinguished, investigators found at least a dozen gasoline canisters scattered across the pavement and inside the Expedition, according to Smith.
  • 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.

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Judge hears arguments in George Floyd case, as protesters chant ‘Black Lives Matter’ outside

By Nick Pfosi

(Reuters) – All four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd appeared in court on Friday, with the prosecution arguing their trials should be combined and the judge weighing a request to move the cases outside the city.

Derek Chauvin, who faces the most serious accusations, was wearing a gray suit and dark shirt and tie for his first in-person court appearance since he was charged with murder for kneeling on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes on May 25.

Chauvin, who is white, was not shackled and appeared thinner than in the bystander videos that captured the incident, according to a media pool report. His hair was cut short and he wore a blue surgical mask due to the novel coronavirus.

The death of Floyd, who was Black, sparked worldwide protests against racism and calls for police reforms nationwide that are still ongoing, reignited in recent weeks by incidents in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Rochester, New York.

About 100 protesters had gathered outside the heavily fortified Family Justice Center, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “no justice, no peace” as the hearing, which started at 9 a.m. CDT (10 a.m. EDT), got underway inside.

The other three former officers on the scene – J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao – are charged with aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder. Kueng, Lane and Thao all appeared in court wearing dark suits, according to the pool report.

All four men oppose a motion by prosecutors to consolidate their cases into one trial.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank said in court the cases should be combined, arguing that separate trials could delay justice for years and would traumatize Floyd’s family, according to KARE 11 reporter Lou Raguse.

Addressing the request by all four defendants to move their trials outside of Minneapolis due to concerns about pretrial publicity, Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill said he believed a questionnaire would need to be sent to potential jurors to see how they have been affected by the publicity around the case, Raguse wrote on Twitter.

(Reporting by Nick Pfosi in Minneapolis and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)