(Fox 8)
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – Chaotic moments are captured on police body camera after a car crashed into a convenience store.
Rocky River police responded to an alarm early Sunday morning at the convenience mart on Hilliard Boulevard, and discovered that a car traveling at around 40 mph had crashed through security poles and drove into the middle of the store.
The clerk was trapped under debris and told police he had just closed for the night, when the car crashed into the front of the store. He reported that the driver got out of the vehicle, told him he needed a beer and went inside the store's cooler.
Police said the driver, Robert Mason, 45, of Rocky River, was suffering from issues related to his service in the military, and as an officer with the Federal Protective Service.
Mason was barricaded inside the beer cooler and challenged the officers to shoot him, but they attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution.
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While negotiators spoke to Mason, an officer was able to deploy his Taser. Mason put up a fight but was eventually handcuffed before he could harm himself or police. He is facing charges that include OVI and reckless operation.
The employee who was hit by the car said he was saved by the deli case. The car was going so fast that when it hit the case, it shoved it and the employee ten feet backwards.
"Had the car been over a couple more feet, he was hurt, it could have been serious bodily injury, even possibly death. I mean that's a four, five thousand pound automobile coming at 30, 40 miles an hour. He was lucky, very lucky," said Rocky River Police Chief Kelly Stillman.
The clerk said he is in a lot of pain, but suffered no broken bones.