A woman was killed and 17 others were injured when a man drove a car into a crowd of people attending an event in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening, state police said. The suspect fled and then attacked and killed his mother with a hammer, authorities said.
The suspect, Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 24, was arrested and arraigned Sunday by District Judge Doug Brewer on two open counts of criminal homicide, according to state police.
Around 6:12 p.m. Saturday, a Honda Accord pulled over a group of people in the parking lot of the Department of Toxicology, a bar in Berwick, according to a criminal complaint obtained by CBS News.
At the time of the crash, the bar was hosting a day-long fundraiser for the families of 10 people, including three children, who they were killed in a house fire last week in the neighboring town of Nescopeck.
There were about 75 people in the parking lot when the accident happened. One woman died and 17 others were injured. The complaint identified the woman killed as Rebecca Reese, who police said was dragged by the car after being hit. Of the 17 people hospitalized, at least five remained in critical condition Sunday, according to Geisinger Medical Center, a hospital near Danville.
According to the complaint, after confronting the crowd, Reyes sped off and returned to his home in Nescopeck, where minutes later he struck his mother, Rosa Reyes, with the car, and also crashed into a neighbor’s parked vehicle. He then assaulted his mother with a hammer, the complaint says. He died at the scene. State troopers and local police responded and arrested Reyes.
According to the complaint, Reyes told detectives he had argued with his mother at her home in Nescopeck. He left the house, drove to Berwick, where he saw the crowd and deliberately crashed into it. He told detectives he then returned home, saw his mother standing in the street and went inside with her. He then confessed to taking a hammer from the Honda and attacking her with it, the complaint says.
Reyes, meanwhile, is not a suspect in the investigation into the recent fatal Nescopeck house fire, a state police spokesman told CBS News.
“Today was an absolute tragedy,” he said Department of Toxicology he said in a Facebook post shared Saturday night. “We are closed until further notice. Please respect our privacy as we grieve and try to process the events that have occurred. Thank you.”
Reyes is currently being held at the Columbia County Correctional Facility and has been denied bail.
Berwick is approximately 115 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Faris Tanyos contributed to this report.
