FBI closes federal investigation into Rainbow Bridge car explosion
- A vehicle exploded after it crashed into a CBP booth at the Rainbow Bridge
- The two people in the vehicle died, CBP agents suffered minor injuries
- FBI: Search revealed "no explosives materials and no terrorism nexus"
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NIAGRA FALLS, N.Y. (NewsNation) — The federal investigation into a vehicle explosion at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the U.S. and Canada in Niagara Falls is over, the FBI said late Wednesday night.
The FBI’s search of the scene revealed “no explosive materials and no terrorism nexus,” FBI Buffalo posted on social media.
The conclusion of the investigation is a relief to those who feared it could have been a terrorist attempt in a time of heightened security and threats because of the war in Israel.
However, there are still plenty of questions about the incident.
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A new angle of surveillance video from U.S. Customs and Border Protection cameras caught the moment where the white sedan is seen barreling toward a median, hopping a fence and bursting into flames at a CBP booth.
The explosion killed the two passengers in the vehicle and caused minor injuries to a Border Patrol agent.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the driver was from Western New York and the car didn’t have a license plate.
The car was driving at an “extraordinarily high rate of speed that then crashed into the median that sent the vehicle airborne,” Hochul said.
The City of Niagara Falls said the incident involved a vehicle attempting to enter the U.S., according to NewsNation local affiliate WIVB. All four international border crossings between the United States and Canada in Western New York were closed Wednesday because of the incident.
“All of a sudden the car went up in the air and then it was a ball of fire like 30, 40 feet high. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was really incredible,” Mike Guenther said.
Guenther, a Canadian visiting the U.S. from Kitchener, Ontario, for the Thanksgiving holiday, was walking down Main Street in Niagara Falls with his wife when the crash took place. He saw the car speed by at what he said could have been as fast as 100 mph or more, swerve down the road, and crash before going airborne.
The FBI turned the case over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation after concluding its federal investigation.
The Rainbow Bridge remained closed Thursday morning. However, the three other international crossings in Western New York were reopened.
