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NEW YORK CITY -- President Obama is vowing justice Sunday as authorities search for the person who tried to set off a car bomb in New York City's Times Square.
The scare prompted the evacuation of thousands of people, including several Utahns.
The bomb was discovered late Saturday in an SUV parked by a street vendor. Though the explosive never went off, police still ordered that all civilians leave Times Square.
The Taliban in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the failed terrorist attack. However, the attack is outside their usual territory -- different from their typical M.O. Could the attack have come from a different direction, perhaps from a home-grown political extremist?
I think that's the message, you know, we all kind of got to watch each others' backs when we see things and report them and take things seriously so the police can do their job.
–Jana Miller
But whoever parked the car bomb at 45th Street and Broadway clearly meant business, despite the fact authorities described the attempt as "amateurish." The SUV was loaded with gasoline cans, propane tanks and fireworks.
It fizzled as an incredible scene unfolded in what is known as the "Crossroads of the World." On a busy Saturday night, as theater-goers and tourists jammed Times Square, a driver abandoned the vehicle and fled.
A T-shirt vendor noticed smoke and called police.
Related:
NYPD: Video has possible SUV bomb suspect in alley
Police investigating a failed car bomb left in Times Square have videotape of a possible suspect shedding clothing in an alley and putting it in a bag and found a substance that resembled fertilizer in the parked SUV, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday.Salt Lake City residents Melanie Hawks and Jana Miller were in the area as police barricades went up.
"Eerie, quite eerie," Hawks said in a phone interview with KSL Sunday. "One minute everything was completely normal. About 7:30 Eastern Time, you can imagine the crowd in Times Square. The next minute it just starts emptying."
Miller recounted her experience. "Well of course you always think of the Twin Towers, but the thing that I was really impressed with was how quickly they had the entire Times Square area blocked off," she said.
Hawks said things quickly became tense. "My main concern was the crowd. I was afraid of something happening, an explosion or something, and people panicking and running," she said.
Both Utahns were impressed that an alert citizen acted quickly, allowing police to get on it in a hurry.
"I think that's the message, you know, we all kind of got to watch each others' backs when we see things and report them and take things seriously so the police can do their job," Miller said.
Hawks said she was grateful law enforcement did their jobs so well.
"The police and public safety officers were incredibly efficient, incredibly professional, incredibly calm. They were great," she said.
Utah terrorism expert and University of Utah law professor Amos Guiora happened to be at Times Square Saturday and left just before the incident. By phone from Jerusalem, he told KSL the Taliban claim of responsibility should not be discounted.
"Based on my experience, generally, when these groups take credit for it it's because they did it," he said.
If it was a Taliban operation, it was apparently retaliation for the US killing of a Taliban leader in Pakistan.
"It would be the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that the Taliban has done a terrorist attack in America. That would be a significant change," Guiora said.
The attack's amateurishness prompted speculation it might have been done by untrained American political extremists.
"The militia groups are clearly out there. They have their anger. They have their rage," Guiora said.
But Guiora says Islamic attacks have fizzled, too, from incompetence. So he doesn't draw any conclusions from that. Recently he's been investigating a theory that terrorists are entering the U.S. from Mexico, on routes used by drug runners and people smugglers.
"I can't tell you that I've found evidence, but I've found people who think that is indeed something that should be of increasing concern," Guiora said.
He notes one other thing that seems to make the New York attack different from Islamic car bombs in recent years: the driver parked it and fled instead of blowing himself up.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
