NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — It's been one year since the Rainbow Bridge crash. In those first few hours, so much was unknown, but as we learned more a heartbreaking reality emerged.
Retired Niagara Falls Police Chief John Faso responded to the foot of the Rainbow Bridge on the day of the crash.
"When you look at this bridge a year later what goes through your mind?" I asked him.
"Just the scene and what I pulled up to and the uncertainty at the time," Faso replied. "Reliving that incident it was kind of surreal at the time just thinking about as to how the events unfolded."
Faso said he was on his way to a meeting with the fire chief when a call went out over the police radio—a car was on fire.
"And he just said to me, 'You need to get here now,'" Faso said.
Video surveillance from that day showed a car going airborne, crashing and exploding at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection booth.
Inside that car — 53-year-old husband and wife Kurt and Monica Villani from Grand Island. They were widely known as the owners of Gui's lumber and for their generosity.
"In the days after being that a local family, a prominent local family, a good family, it was in knowing you know there's children and they're a good family — it was emotional," he said.
But before investigators realized what was actually happening, Faso said the original report law enforcement received was that a car pulled up to the inspection booth and exploded.
Me: What's going through your mind as you're making your way to the bridge?
Faso: So being that he said detonation he didn't say terrorist attack but he said a vehicle detonated. I don't want to compare it but I felt sort of the way I did on 9/11.
However, that surveillance video was a key component, allowing them to quickly identify the car, and from there, the investigation took a different turn.
"I feel terribly for the family," he said.
Eight months after the crash the investigation came to a close with no clear cause.
"It was a tragic, tragic event. I really—I'm no longer chief I've retired but I really would've liked to have given the family some kind of answers and some closure before I left and that weighs on me a little bit," he said.
