| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: WoT | |
| NYC: Walker in Central Park severely injured in explosion | |
| 2016-07-04 | |
| At a press conference Sunday, officials said they believe an explosion in Central Park near Fifth Avenue and East 62nd Street was caused by an 'experiment' of fireworks or a homemade device. There is no evidence suggesting that the explosion was terror-related. Except that the victim stepped on a rock and it exploded, just like a land mine. The victim who was severely injured has been identified as 18-year-old Connor Golden from Fairfax, Virginia. Golden was walking with two friends when he stepped on something and it blew up, according to witnesses. Police said witnesses told them the man had just stepped onto a rock when an explosion occurred. People in the area said the explosion was heard blocks away. Our Eyewitness News cameras were rolling from two blocks away, and captured the sound of the explosion as it happened: Police are still trying to determine who the device belonged to. The victim and his friends were cleared, and officers said they were innocent victims. The device had been left in Central Park for approximately one day. "We were climbing down the rocks, Connor was 6 feet behind me and all of sudden I felt the explosion on my back," said one of Golden's friends, Thomas Hinds. "The explosion sounded like a gunshot next to my ears. I turned around and saw his foot which wasn't completely blown off but was severely mutilated. My other friend Matthew was behind Connor and all he saw was massive amount of dirt go flying up in the air." The NYPD bomb squad is still on the scene investigating.
A disintegrated matchbook was found nearby, leading investigators to believe that someone tried to set it off sometime on Friday, but left it behind when it didn’t work, the high-ranking police source said. “The explosion could have been an experiment with fireworks or homemade explosives,” O’Connell said. “We believe this could have been put here as some sort of experiment.” The high-ranking police official said some of the components were similar to “snappers,” which erupt with a loud sound when they are thrown to the ground. “There were no timers or trips or wires or even shrapnel,” the source said. “It was not set up with any sophistication. If he was going to harm people, he wouldn’t have put it far off the path. They also would have put some nails or ball bearings in it.” There is forensic evidence that indicates that it was not meant to go off by somebody stepping on it. It may have not gone off at an earlier time and then it was just left there,” Torre said. “This is somebody who had knowledge of chemistry, but you don’t have to do anything more than be good with computers to get enough knowledge of chemistry to be able to create some of this type of material, readily available material unfortunately,” he said without elaborating on what types of material were in the bomb. | |
| Posted by:Anguper Hupomosing9418 |
| #1 Appears young Conner may have been doing some... experimenting with explosives. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-07-04 05:51 |