Charges are pending against a 25-year-old Ontario man who was taken into custody early Friday afternoon in connection with the deaths of three people after a car crashed into a south Edmonton Starbucks location.
In a news release issued late Friday afternoon, police said the man whom they believe was the driver of the car, was arrested at his home at 12:10 p.m. He was treated by paramedics and then taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said charges against the man “will be sworn later this evening, once the suspect’s condition is stabilized in hospital.”
Earlier in the day, Edmonton police said they were searching for the driver of the vehicle involved in the crash.
According to police, emergency crews were called to a single-vehicle collision on Calgary Trail just north of 55 Avenue Northwest at around 2:20 a.m.
Police said an Audi RS5 sedan crashed into a Starbucks, killing three people inside the vehicle — two women aged 20 and 21 and a male that has yet to be identified.
Police said they believe “excessive speed was involved.”
When crews arrived, the driver of the vehicle wasn’t at the scene.
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“The male driver of the vehicle, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, fled the scene prior to the arrival of police, and remains at large this morning,” the Edmonton Police Service said in a media release just before noon Friday.
Sunny Kalsi just finished work down the street and was at a nearby gas station when he said he saw the vehicle speed down the road. He heard the crash and knew something was wrong.
He said he walked up to the vehicle and saw the driver was awake.
“I could see he was talking… I asked the guy, ‘Brother, are you OK?’ He said, yeah, he’s OK. He came outside and I made him lie down on the ground. After that, he woke up again and he started trying to walk,” he said.
“After that he goes at the back of the Starbucks and after that I don’t know where he went.”
The car has Ontario licence plates and the owner of the car is Oscar Benjumea, 25, according to his business partner.
Cameron Kane told Global News that Benjumea was driving the car and heard that he had turned himself in Friday. Together, he said they run a company called The Bud King, of which Kane is the president and CEO.
He said he woke up in the morning and had people texting him about the crash. When Benjumea never showed up at work, he said he filed a missing person report with police.
“I did speak to him once today,” Kane said. “He was just letting me know he was OK. It was very brief.
“At the end of the day, you have to own up to your responsibilities and what has happened, and the tragedy happened… he needed to do the right thing.”
Kane said he has known Benjumea since he was 14 and that they have been in business together in Alberta for about three years.
The crumpled wreckage of the light-coloured sedan could be seen on a section of grass outside a badly damaged Starbucks.
The crash caused police to close down a section of Calgary Trail north of 55 Avenue while they investigated. The road reopened later Friday morning.
Anyone with information about the collision is asked to call police at 780-423-4567 or #377 on their mobile device.
The crash caused police to close down a section of Calgary Trail north of 55 Avenue while they investigated. The road reopened later Friday morning.
Anyone with information about this collision or the whereabouts of the male driver is asked to call police at 780-423-4567 or #377 on your mobile device.
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