SARANAC LAKE — A man killed two people and himself by driving a car full of gasoline canisters into a crowd leaving a New Year’s Eve concert by the jam band “moe.” in Rochester.
Jess Collier, a moe. superfan and former Enterprise reporter from Saranac Lake who was at the concert, says the band’s fanbase has been supporting one another as they grapple with the loss of two young members of their “famoe.ly,” and deal with the trauma of being so close to the tragic event.
Collier is calling for an improvement in mental health care, saying this attack should have been “preventable.”
In the early hours of the new year, Michael Avery, 35, of Syracuse crossed into oncoming traffic and sped a rental car filled with 16 gasoline canisters toward a crowd of pedestrians at a crosswalk as they left the show at the Kodak Center early. His vehicle stuck a rideshare vehicle, killing the two passengers and himself, and injuring at least nine others.
intentional attack
Investigators say it appears the targeting of pedestrians was done intentionally.
Justina Hughes, 28, and Joshua Orr, 29, had hailed an Uber to leave the show early before the crowds. Collier said they were being responsible and doing the right thing.
The two friends were killed when Avery’s vehicle struck theirs. The driver of the Uber was hospitalized and several pedestrians were injured. But the Hughes and Orr families say they are taking comfort in knowing that the vehicle they were riding in likely saved lives and they became unknowing heroes.
“Many other lives were saved because they became, albeit unaware, a shield for others,” Hughes’ family said in a statement.
‘Famoe.ly’
This was Collier’s 129th moe. show. Her 128th was the night before. That’s the kind of band moe. is, she said. The band’s dedicated fanbase is so close they call themselves family, or rather, “famoe.ly.”
Collier actually recognized Orr that night from a previous concert.
“I remember seeing him and thinking that it was cool to see the younger generation showing up at moe. shows,” Collier said. “He had a little bit of a baby face and he just looked so young, so young. and that’s kind of crushing now to think about.”
As a band touring since the 1990s, the band has an “aging” fanbase.
Collier estimated there were more than 1,000 people at the concert.
She knew hundreds of people there and had been walking around hugging all her friends hours earlier.
After the tragic attack, Collier said the moe. community has been coming together to comfort each other and work through the trauma. She said it’s helpful to have that group for support. They’re all supporting each other telling each other it’s OK to feel what they’re feeling. Her friend Laurie Sandow started a nightly Zoom support group.
The band has been sharing all the GoFundMe campaigns started for the victims of the attack. There is one for Orr’s family at tinyurl.com/3ep9jmfb, another for Hughes’ family at tinyurl.com/8r9v3pha and one for Sharah Stevens at tinyurl.com/yaa8899j. Collier said Stevens’ hip was shattered in the crash and she had surgery the next day. She was just recently released from the hospital and returned to the moe. social media groups, thanking the community for their support.
The crash
The band blew through their planned 12:30 a.m. curfew. Collier said that’s likely what saved herself and her husband Andy from being out front when the crash occurred.
When the concert ended and they tried to leave, Collier said police at the doors stopped them and told them to stay inside. Amid the confusion, one of her friends looked out the second-floor window and saw the horrible scene below. It wasn’t anything she wanted to see, Collier said, but at the time they thought it was just an average car crash. She didn’t think much of it.
“We were still riding the high from a really awesome show. We were with friends from all over the Northeast who we don’t see regularly,” Collier said. “We were just trying to keep things positive and stay having fun. Now, looking back, it feels kind of awful that we were like that.”
But they had no idea of the magnitude of the crash until the next day when details started rolling in. Collier said it took a while for it to seep in.
Collier said she never considered she could be at a place targeted like this. The attack seems clearly planned to her. Avery had come to town, stayed for a couple of days and bought gasoline from numerous stations. Security cameras from a business around the block from the venue appear to show Avery parking in the lot and walking toward the concert hall before returning and driving in that direction around 20 minutes before he drove the SUV into the crowd there.
There’s lots of speculation about his motives, Collier said, but there’s a possibility he knew someone at the show. Collier said it appears Avery was familiar with the band at some point, as a merch vendor recognized him as having bought stickers or pins in the past.
“I think everyone knows that it’s easy to pretend like you’re never going to be affected by this type of thing … until you are,” Collier said. “I think it’s going to take a long time to really process what happened and how close we all were.”
Sometimes she feels she’s worked through it and other times she feels frozen and starts thinking about how horrible it was. It was certainly traumatic for the people at the show, but she added that it has been tough even for moe. fans who weren’t there. Any one of them likely knows dozens of people who were at that show, or would have been at the show if they didn’t have other plans, and they’ve all been feeling that dread, too.
Mental health
Collier said there needs to be more conversation about the mental health situation in this country. Avery’s parents have said they believe he suffered from bipolar disorder and that he was undiagnosed.
“There are so many ways it could have been stopped before it ever happened,” Collier said. “This kind of thing is going to keep happening until we get things straightened out in terms of how we deal with mental health.”
Collier has been looking for a therapist in the area who takes her insurance and has availability. In the absence of finding one, she downloaded a free PTSD app through her employee assistance program.
She said there’s a nationwide shortage of mental health workers. Her difficulty finding a therapist is just a slice of that shortage reflective of the broader inaccessibility of the mental health system, she added.
People may not be getting diagnosed and treated because it is expensive and insurance doesn’t always cover it, she said. But she said mental health care should be considered preventative care — like going for a physical each year — since it prevents harm and harm to others as well.
“It’d be nice if insurance covered more of it,” Collier said.
Orr’s brother Tyler wrote on his family’s GoFundMe that Josh was “an advocate for those struggling with mental health” and that anything left over from the campaign after funeral expenses and grief counseling will be “donated to organizations supporting those going through mental health struggles.”
Along with the deep sadness and the fear that she’s grappling with, Collier is mad, too. Furious. She asks herself, “What kind of person?” What kind of person would do this and kill other people, she keeps wondering.
But she stops herself short when she calls Avery a “psycho.”
“I don’t want to use that word,” she said. “This person made this choice to do this.”
Collier said she was thankful there were Rochester police stationed right at the crosswalk leading to the venue, who were able to respond immediately. She recalled thanking one on the way in for working the New Year’s Eve shift to direct traffic for the event. In hindsight, she never could have known the job they had ahead of them.
Collier said the attack will likely be on the minds of all who were there for a long time.
“I’m sure I’ll be looking twice on my way in and out of venues for a while,” Collier said.
She said people shouldn’t have to feel that way, and she finds it sad that they are.
“It was an amazing night with so many fantastic friends. I’m so utterly gutted for the people who were lost and their families. It could’ve been any of us,” Collier wrote on Facebook. “(Just) trying to be grateful and not take anything for granted.”
There’s a line in moe.’s song “Wind it up” which goes “Be on my side / I’m on your side.” Collier said the sentiment of love and comfort has been the persistent refrain among the community after the New Year’s attack.