An 18-year-old man visiting New York from Virginia had his left foot severed after he stepped on a package in Central Park that exploded, according to police. Connor Golden was walking in Central Park with two other tourists around his age on Sunday morning when they came across “a package or device,” reports WPIX.
Those attending Elie Wiesel’s funeral heard the blast but there are no signs the explosion was in any way related to the memorial service for the holocaust survivor and author. “We don’t know what happened. There was a small explosion and then dust,” Thomas Hinds, one of Golden’s friends, said. “We really don’t know.” An eyewitness told the local CBS affiliate that the man was climbing a rock structure in the park and stepped on something that “exploded.” After the explosion, Golden’s foot was “all but gone,” another witness said.
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Police are investigating whether the device was some type of firecracker. Golden’s friends denied they were playing with fireworks at the time of the incident. Police say they found a bag of fireworks near the explosion but it wasn’t clear whether it belonged to Golden and his friends. A witness tells the New York Post the explosion did not sound like fireworks. “I said, ‘Come on, guys, were you carrying fireworks?’ And they said no. And I believed them,” he said. “That was no normal firework. This wasn’t an M80 or a cherry bomb. Some something much more serious. I saw a divot that reminded me of impact craters.”
