As New York City marks the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, the Golden family from Virginia is marking a far different milestone: the 10-year anniversary of a violent explosion in New York City\u2019s Central Park that forever changed their son\u2019s life.\u00a0It has also become one of the city\u2019s enduring unsolved mysteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On July 3, 2016, then 18-year-old Connor Golden stepped on explosive powder near the Central Park Zoo. The blast was so powerful that doctors were forced to amputate his lower left leg.<\/p>\n
“Ten years is a lot of time and it heals many wounds,” Connor’s father, Kevin Golden, said. “But it doesn’t heal that wound.”<\/p>\n
Because the explosion happened on the eve of Independence Day, the NYPD initially raised the possibility that it could have been connected to homemade fireworks.<\/p>\n
“It is not unusual for the public to make or try to create homemade fireworks around\u00a0the 4th of July,” then-Deputy Chief John O’Connell said on the day of the explosion.<\/p>\n
Investigators later determined the substance involved was TATP, a volatile explosive compound that has been used by extremists and terrorists in attacks around the world. In 2016, Connor Golden’s lower leg was blown off by the TATP explosion, and his parents have long expressed frustration with the early suggestion that the incident stemmed from an amateur fireworks experiment.<\/p>\n
This past March, the NYPD arrested two men accused of throwing devices containing TATP near anti-Muslim protesters outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City’s mayor. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kevin Golden believes that investigation was treated with greater urgency, in part because TATP was at the forefront from the beginning.<\/p>\n
“It was not mischaracterized as a fireworks accident,” he said. “It was given due seriousness.”<\/p>\n
A decade after Connor Golden was injured, whoever left the explosive powder near the rocks by the Central Park Zoo has never been identified.<\/p>\n
There is no known surveillance video of the incident. The most significant piece of evidence remains a reconstructed bag from La Unica Bakery in Union City, New Jersey, inside which investigators say the explosive powder was concealed.<\/p>\n
“Those bags hadn’t been in production for like seven years prior to that, so it is likely the person who put the TATP in that bag was a New York person,” Kevin Golden said.<\/p>\n
The NYPD says there are no new developments in the investigation. A $40,000 reward remains available for information leading to the arrest of the bomber or bombers, and police continue to ask anyone with information to contact the Crime Stoppers hotline.<\/p>\n
In the ten years since the blast, Connor Golden has moved forward with his life. In a 2021 interview with News 4 New York, he demonstrated his agility using a prosthetic leg and said he has chosen not to dwell on the mystery surrounding the attack.<\/p>\n
“I really didn’t waste a second looking for an answer or something that would make a wrong right,” Connor Golden said at the time. “That wasn’t in my power.”<\/p>\n
For Kevin and Carol Golden, however, the passage of time has not diminished their desire for answers. They say there remains a part of them that cannot accept that the person responsible for taking their son\u2019s lower leg has never been caught.<\/p>\n
“Every step he takes is impacted by that experience in Central Park 10 years ago,” Kevin Golden said.<\/p>\n
“We still hold out hope, and that’s all we’ve got.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As New York City marks the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, the Golden family from Virginia is marking a far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[4709,4484,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-286500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-central-park","tag-i-team","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}