Two people are dead and others are injured after a man crashed a car into a Bessemer City, N.C., restaurant around noon Sunday, according to police.
The man, Roger Self, was arrested, Bessemer City Police Chief Thomas Ellis Jr. said.
Self’s daughter, Katelyn Self, was one of the people killed. She was inside the restaurant with other family members, officials said.
The investigation so far indicates Roger Self drove into the Surf and Turf Lodge on purpose, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman Rob Tufano said.
“He drove his car into the building, killing people, so that’s why we took him into custody immediately,” Ellis said, adding that the car was fully inside the restaurant.
Katelyn Self was a four-year veteran of the Gaston County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Alan Cloninger said. She worked as a corporal in the jail and was off duty when she was killed.
Cloninger choked up as he talked about the crash. He asked people to keep the Self family and the sheriff’s office in their prayers.
“We’re suffering a little bit right now,” he said.
The other victim’s name was not been released as of 7 p.m. Sunday.
Tufano called the crash a “mass casualty” incident, and some victims were flown by helicopter to Carolinas Medical Center.
Witnesses told WBTV that a man sat down to eat lunch before leaving the restaurant and running into it with his car.
The Gaston Gazette identified Roger Self as a businessman from Dallas, N.C.
Roger Self ran a private investigations business, according to a 2017 profile in the Gazette. The business, Southeastern Loss Management, opened in 1989 and mostly helped companies investigate employees’ wrongdoing, according to the profile.
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