If you’re catching up on this tragic story, here’s what we know — and don’t know — so far. The man, identified by police as Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes, told investigators he was passing through Columbia County’s Berwick Saturday night feeling “extremely upset” about an argument with his mother about money and other matters, according to with the New York Times. . After passing the crowd of about 75 people gathered for the fundraiser in a blocked parking lot, he turned the car around, accelerated and drove through the group without stopping, investigators say. His Honda Accord plowed into the crowd, which had gathered outside a local bar and included young children, around 6 p.m., according to the Washington Post. Brent Beckley, 32, who DJ’d the event, told the Post that “everyone was having fun” in the moments before the crash. He was announcing the raffle winners, near his daughter and other children, when he heard “a thud” and turned to see the car speeding toward the group. Beckley said he pushed his daughter and the other children before he was hit. The impact left him with a broken arm, two broken ribs, a broken collarbone and internal bruising. Moments later, police in the neighboring town of Nescopeck received a call about a man hitting a woman with a hammer, the Times reported. Reyes later told investigators that he first hit the woman, identified by local news reports as Rosa D. Reyes’ mother, with his car and then beat her to death. The woman killed at the fundraiser has been identified as Rebecca L. Reese, according to news reports. Seventeen people were injured there, with at least nine others hit by the car. Five of the injured were in critical condition late Sunday at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, according to the Post, and two were in good condition. Others were treated and released. Reyes, 24, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder, according to news reports, and is being held at the Columbia County Correctional Facility without bond. Not much information had been released about Reese as of Monday. Their identities had not been released as of Monday. He had a documented history of violence against his mother, the Post reported, and was placed on probation after hitting her in the face with her cell phone in 2020. After the arrest, reporters asked if he had anything to say, according to tweets from reporters at the scene, and he replied, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” On August 5, a “violent” and “powerful” house fire in Nescopeck killed 10 people, including three children aged 5, 6 and 7. The victims include many relatives of local volunteer firefighter Harold Baker, who responded to the fire without initially knowing it was occupied by his 19-year-old son Dale, his 22-year-old daughter Starr and other relatives. “I tried to get in as quickly as I could,” he told The Times earlier this month. “I tried three times and then they figured out whose house it was and why I was trying to go in there, and they kicked me out,” he said of his colleagues. “They said, ‘No, you have to get out of here.’ Three people managed to escape the fire, which neighbors described to reporters as a fast-moving “inferno”. Along with Dale and Star Baker, the other adults who died were identified as David Daubert Sr., 79. Brian Daubert, 42; Shannon Daubert, 45; Laura Daubert, 47; and Marian Slusser, 54. The funerals of the victims took place on Friday, Sunday and Monday. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Reyes is not a suspect in the fire investigation, State Trooper Anthony Petroski told The Times on Sunday. Petroski described the impact to the Post: “This is a complete tragedy in a community where tragedy has already happened.” Among those directly affected once again was Baker, the volunteer firefighter who responded to a fire in early August at the home of two of his children. He told the Times that he responded to the Nescopeck crime scene where Reyes killed his mother. On stage at the fundraiser, he said a bride and other relatives were injured and an aunt of his bride was killed. “I haven’t processed the fire yet,” he told the Times, “and now I have to deal with it.” Robyn Masina, a Berwick resident and daughter of Nescopeck’s mayor, told the Times: “What is this madness? Why does it happen? We’re a small town that probably hasn’t been in the news since the flood of 1978.” The fundraiser was being held in Beswick, a town of about 10,000 people along the Susquehanna River in Columbia County. It is about 45 miles southwest of Scranton, not far from Bloomsburg. Reyes is a resident of Nescopeck, a township just across the river in neighboring Luzerne County from where the fatal fire occurred. He killed his mother at Nescopeck. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
