A fourth person has died in about two weeks after a driver crashed into an SUV loaded with gas cans near a crowd of New Year's concert attendees in Western New York, but authorities said Friday there was no motive for the so-called intentional attack. He announced that he might not know.
Rochester police said Friday that motorist Michael Avery, 35, spent several hours in a parking lot and other locations near the Kodak Center the night of the wreck, killing himself, two passengers in another vehicle, and A pedestrian was killed earlier this week. Police Chief David Smith said at a news conference that Avery had gone to the theater and purchased tickets for the show, but he did not go inside.
Investigators found a canister of gasoline in Avery's rented Ford Expedition, as well as a replica gun and a lighter, Smith said. There was also a 20-page diary containing sporadic entries that appeared to be several years old and unrelated to the crash, the chief said.
Unsolved cases solved in 2023: Unsolved mysteries that brought solutions.
Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said Avery premeditated his “assault on innocent people” and that his actions made it clear “he wanted to do more.”
Rochester Police are investigating a fatal fire that occurred outside the Kodak Center in Rochester, New York, in the early hours of Monday, January 1, 2024. The Ford Expedition struck the Mitsubishi Outlander, and both vehicles “plowed through a group of pedestrians who were crossing the road,” the statement said. Said. (WHAM-TV via AP)
“We may never know why he decided to carry out this act,” Evans said.
Investigators searched Avery's hotel room, storage unit and his car, which was parked at the Rochester airport. Authorities are reviewing hundreds of hours of surveillance video and interviewing people who knew him. Smith said investigators have so far found no co-conspirators, no links to “extremist ideology” or an actual motive.
He said Avery, who lived in the Syracuse area and worked as a delivery driver, had behavioral issues. But last month, Smith said, the family showed no signs of any immediate problems.
2 killed, 5 injured in crash after intense New York concert in Rochester
Police said Avery bought and filled gas cans in the Rochester area during the last few days of December.
Then, around 1 a.m. on January 1, he drove his Ford Expedition into oncoming traffic and appeared to be headed toward a crosswalk filled with people leaving a show with the jam band Moe.
The SUV collided with the dispatch vehicle and both crashed into a crosswalk. Two ride-hailing passengers, friends Justina Hughes and Joshua Orr, were killed, and several others were injured, many of them pedestrians.
One of the injured, Dawn Levett, 54, died Wednesday, Smith said. Levett lived in Rochester.
The police chief said one person is still hospitalized and his injuries are not life-threatening.
