Watch: Video shows University Circle explosion
CLEVELAND (WJW) – Video released to the FOX 8 I-Team gives us the first look at what happened when the sound of an explosion filled the air in University Circle.
It happened on the street in broad daylight where so many people take their families.
The case remains a mystery, but we’ve uncovered more.
We now see a camera captured an explosion this month on Wade Oval, a street where families park and walk to the museums. On the video, you see a flash and then smoke builds.
One man called 911 and reported, “It sounded like a loud explosion came from the Circle.”
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University Circle police body camera video shows an officer scrambled to the scene. Some kind of explosive device went off right next to a family’s vehicle.
“Did you have any fireworks or anything like that in the car?” an officer asked.
“No,” a man responded.
“No? Nothing flammable?” the officer asked.
“One of my guards was in our wildlife area,” a witness told the officer. “Heard a loud bang. Smoke coming from over here.”
Nobody was hurt, but you can see some damage to one vehicle.
“We’re not sure what happened and we’re not sure what’s going on at all,” the witness said.
“Definitely some type of firework went off underneath here,” the officer said.
“It is a mystery. It’s just a lot of parts to put together,” University Circle Police Chief Tom Wetzel said.
University Circle police and the Cleveland police bomb squad are handling the case.
Chief Wetzel says investigators still have many questions.
“Part of it, just learning exactly what that was because it clearly was larger than a typical firework. And, why they did it, what was the reason? What was the motive? What were they trying to accomplish other than causing a lot of fear?” he said.
The chief describes the investigation as frustrating. For example, we noticed the best security video so far comes from a camera some distance away.
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Police still hope to find more witnesses, someone able to explain what happened and why.
Just after the explosion, another family came back to a car only feet away from the scene.
A woman pointed to her car and said to police, “We’re here, is everything OK?”
University Circle police have put extra patrols in that area, trying to give people peace of mind as investigators keep working to solve this mystery.
Police believe this was some kind of isolated incident, but they want to be sure and they could use tips to help detectives.
“Very, very weird,” one witness said.
“Yeah, very odd,” the officer answered.
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