() – Investigators have identified the couple killed in an explosion near the U.S.-Canada border on Wednesday.
Kurt P. Villani and his wife Monica Villani, both 53, were killed in the crash on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge border crossing, the Niagara Falls Police Department said in a news release. The couple lived in Grand Island, New York, the NYPD said.
The couple’s relatives thanked those who sent them messages of support and asked for public privacy.
“We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone who extended their prayers, condolences and well wishes,” family members said in a statement released through the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. “We are deeply touched. At this time, we are requesting privacy so we can begin the healing process. Thank you.”
Despite initial concerns of a terrorist attack, the FBI has found no connection to terrorism, and no explosives were found at the scene, the agency’s Buffalo field office said Wednesday night.
“I want to be very, very clear to Americans and New Yorkers: At this point, there is no indication of a terrorist attack,” the governor told reporters at a news conference Wednesday night.
“Two individuals were killed in the vehicle,” Hochul said, noting that the car is associated with a Western New York resident.
Investigators believe the deceased man was scheduled to attend a KISS concert in Canada, but when the concert was cancelled, he went to a casino in the United States instead. The accident occurred shortly after the couple left the casino, according to sources.
The explosion temporarily closed all four bridges between Canada and the United States near Niagara Falls on one of the busiest days of the year. Three of the bridges reopened later on Wednesday, but the Rainbow Bridge remained closed overnight. The port reopened at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
Here’s what we know so far:
The vehicle was traveling at an “extraordinarily high speed” when it approached the border crossing at about 11:30 a.m. and crashed into a barrier, Gov. Hochul said.
The impact sent the car several feet into the air before it crashed into a Customs and Border Protection booth and burst into flames, Hochul said. She described the footage of the incident as “absolutely surreal.”
An officer working at the booth was treated for minor injuries, he said.
The vehicle was “basically incinerated” and the remains were scattered across more than a dozen checkpoints, the governor said.
Rickie Wilson saw the car fly past him “almost like in a movie” and for a moment thought it was a plane, the witness told affiliate WKBW.
Following the crash, federal investigators rushed to determine whether it was an act of terrorism. Within hours, authorities released their preliminary findings and assured the public that they had found no evidence of a terrorist motive.
“But we will remain vigilant. We will continue to ensure that the information we have is communicated to the public,” US Attorney Trini Ross of the Western District of New York told a news conference.
U.S. and Canadian leaders were briefed on the incident as the investigation was underway. The initial explosion also prompted heightened security precautions in the region, including the evacuation of local government offices on the U.S. side.
Buffalo Niagara International Airport closed to incoming and outgoing international flights but later lifted the restriction, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. A spokesman for the Niagara Falls Border Transportation Authority said all cars arriving at the airport were being inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs. And Amtrak temporarily suspended part of its cross-border route connecting New York to Toronto.
Officials investigating the crash had been searching for an individual, but working through the Joint Terrorism Task Force did not initially find any concerning information, FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew Miraglia said Wednesday afternoon.
“We don’t have any derogatory information about this person that we have identified,” he said. “We are scanning their social media, there is nothing there. We are still conducting a full investigation, so it is a preliminary assessment.”
– ’s Pete Muntean, Raja Razek, Dave Alsup, Josh Campbell, Sabrina Souza and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.
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