1 person is dead and 17 injured after a car drove through a crowd at a Pennsylvania community event
By Tina Burnside, CNN
A man was arrested on suspicion of driving his car into a crowd Saturday evening in Pennsylvania, killing one person and injuring 17 others, before killing his mother later that night in a neighboring county, authorities said.
The car plowed into a crowd in Columbia County’s Berwick Borough for an all-day community event to raise money for victims of a deadly house fire, according to a news release from Pennsylvania State Police.
The suspect is identified as 24-year-old Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes of Nescopeck. authorities said. The person who died in the crash has not been publicly identified.
“I didn’t ram ’em, I just ran them over,” the suspect told investigators after his arrest, a criminal complaint states.
Many of those injured were taken to local hospitals following the crash. The Geisinger Medical Center reported treating 15 patients, including at least four people who were in critical condition, spokesperson Natalie Buyny told CNN in a statement.
The suspect’s mother died later in another location, according to the criminal complaint.
Pennsylvania State Police said they received a call Saturday about a male who was physically assaulting a woman in the Nescopeck Borough of Luzerne County.
State troopers arrived to find a woman dead. The suspect was detained by officers from a municipal police department, according to the release.
The victim, 56-year-old Rosa Reyes, was struck by a vehicle and assaulted with a hammer, according to a Luzerne County coroner’s report released Sunday.
Sura Reyes told police before he drove his car through the crowd, he was “extremely frustrated” after a dispute with his mother. He also told investigators he was “tired of fighting with his mother” and “wanted to be done with it,” the complaint states.
After driving through the crowd, Sura Reyes returned to his home where he saw his mother outside, the complaint states. He told investigators he hit her with his car and began striking her with a hammer, according to the document.
The suspect was arraigned early Sunday on two counts of criminal homicide, the release said. He was denied bail and is being held in the Columbia County Correctional Facility.
It was not immediately clear if he has an attorney. CNN has reached out the Columbia County Public Defender’s office for comment.
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