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Rivers Cuomo of Weezer once crooned about his “favorite rock group Kiss,” but his devotion might pale in comparison to that of a wealthy western New York man whose Bentley careened into an American border station and burst into flames after Kiss cancelled its farewell concert in Ottawa.
Officials say they aren’t ready to call the incident an accident … but they are dismissing initial reports from Fox News that the explosion was linked to an act of terrorism.
Whatever happened, we know a 56-year-old man and his wife both perished in the crash. An agent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division was hospitalized with injuries in the aftermath of the explosion but has already been released and is expected to make a full recovery.
According to CNN, “investigators believe the man who died had plans to attend a KISS concert in Canada, but when it was canceled he went to a casino in the United States instead.”
Kiss was scheduled to perform in Ottawa at the 19,000-seat Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday but the show was cancelled when singer/ guitarist Paul Stanley came down with the flu.
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Video footage showed the $300,000 Bentley Excelsior X traveling at a very high rate of speed when it went airborne after striking a curb. After flying through the air, it slammed into the gate on the America side of the Rainbow Bridge, which spans the Niagara River gorge between the United States and Canada.
The car exploded and incinerated upon impact.
The Rainbow Bridge border crossing remains closed as of Thursday morning, however three other border crossings in western New York which were initially shut down due to terrorism concerns have reopened.
You can see the vehicle go airborne after striking a curb in this clip …
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The FBI has called a wrap on the investigation, referring it to the Niagara Falls police department as a traffic matter.
“FBI Buffalo has concluded our investigation at the scene of the Rainbow Bridge incident,” a statement from the agency noted. “A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials and no terrorism nexus was identified.”
Terror threats were stoked after Fox News’ cited sources claiming the vehicle contained “a lot of explosives.” One conservative media figure, Laura Loomer, posted on X that the crash was a “confirmed Islamic terrorist attack.”
Take a look …
(Click to View)
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As speculation about a possible terror attack was running rampant on social media, Reuters reported at approximately 4:05 EST that the incident was “likely caused by a reckless driver.”
Shortly thereafter, Fox started walking back its original reporting …
“We told you earlier that there was an explosion because there were explosives inside the car, and now authorities are apparently walking that back just a little bit saying it’s unclear if there were explosives or how many explosives,” host Trace Gallagher said. “Clearly, this might not be a terror attack at all.”
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” New York governor Kathy Hochul said.
You can say that again …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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6 comments
Sorry your attempt at fear mongering turned out to be a big fat nothingburger.
Can you believe reposting anything you heard on FoxNews ended up being a lie?
Oh well, stupid is as stupid does ;-)
It’s crazy that so many right wing nutjobs were disappointed that this wasn’t a terror attack that they could blame Biden for.
You seem so disappointed, Will. Why, it’s almost as if you (and the right-wing media) wanted there to be a terrorist attack on a US border so it would justify all the hype you’ve already poured into “border security.” Why anyone would believe anything a “news” network said that had to pay out a three-quarters of a billion dollar lawsuit because of their voting machine lies, is beyond me. Are you really THAT gullible? Remember how many times Fox News breathlessly announced that WMD had been found in Iraq as it desperately tried to justify a war yet another Republican had gotten us into? That should have been your wake-up call right then and there. The problem is that far too many people have brought into the lies and venom spread by Fox and their ilk to the point we now have a Congress & Senate which can’t even govern, let alone function. Where every GOP would-be is now trying to out crazy each other–like a sick circus freak show. Find more reputable sources next time. In fact, BE a more reputable source.
Republicans pretty much hate America. They have an idealized, ultra-patriotic, overly masculine depiction of what they want America to be, basically a white ethnostate.
Honestly America will be the next historical case study for fascism. I guess Europe gets a break this time.
I did not realize that so many lefty nutjobs read your blog Will. The four idiotic postings above are worthy of comedic value, at most. Good try commies.
Hey “Project 2025”, how many years did you serve in any branch of the US military?