The car plowed into a crowd of people who had gathered in Columbia County’s Berwick Borough for an all-day community event to raise money for victims of a deadly fire, state police said in a statement of Pennsylvania.
State troopers and Berwick police arrived at the scene to find multiple victims, including one person who had died, according to the police statement.
A short time later, Pennsylvania State Police say they received a call about a suspicious man who was physically assaulting a woman in Luzerne County’s Nescopeck District. State troopers arrived to find the woman dead and the suspect was arrested by officers from a municipal police department, according to the statement. Authorities determined the suspect found with the woman is also a suspect in the Berwick crash.
The victim, Rosa Reyes, 56, was struck by a vehicle and assaulted with a hammer, according to the Luzerne County Coroner’s report released Sunday.
Many of the injured were taken to local hospitals after the crash. Geisinger Medical Center reported treating 15 patients from the Berwick incident, including at least four people who were in critical condition, spokeswoman Natalie Buyny told CNN in a statement.
Authorities have not publicly identified the individual who died in the crash, but identified the suspect in a news release Sunday morning as Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, 24, of Nescopeck. It is not clear if he is related to the victim Rosa Reyes.
The suspect was arraigned early Sunday on two counts of criminal homicide, according to the release. He was denied bail and is being held at the Columbia County Correctional Facility.
The motive for both incidents remains unclear, police said, and no further details were available.