PHOTOS: Man crashes into, drives inside Dallas, Ore. convenience store
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A man was arrested after police say he crashed his truck into a Dallas, Ore. convenience store late Saturday night, then drove around in the store, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and investigators are determining if this was a bias crime.
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Surveillance footage shows the truck crashing into a Center Market convenience store at a high speed, with a man getting out to steal beer and cigarettes around 9:30 p.m.
The footage then captures the man attempting to drive his truck in the store, running over and damaging various shelves of items over the course of five minutes.
When police arrive and identify themselves, the man gets out of the truck, shouts at officers, then gets back into the truck, attempting to escape.
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However, he soon got out of the truck yelling, “I’m sorry” multiple times, then surrenders to police.
“I would just like to ask him what his thought process was through this whole incident,” said Amrit Singh, the store’s operations manager. “What was going through his mind when he essentially came into the store going 35, 40 miles an hour?”
Singh added an employee was working that night, but was unharmed.
“Our first instinct was, ‘Hey, is everybody okay?’ Because people aren’t replaceable. All this stuff is,” he said.
However, Singh noted the incident caused over $200,000 in damages.
“The equipment in here is not cheap by any means,” he said. “Just the store front that he drove through was probably about 45 to $50,000 of glass and aluminum right there.”
The police report identifies the suspect as 34-year-old John Louis Marlas who was booked into the Polk County Jail on 18 separate charges, including reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, robbery, theft, menacing, DUII and unlawful use of a weapon.
Dallas police told KOIN 6 News they are investigating this as a bias crime, but have not yet made a determination.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s time for the owners to start again.
“There’s no doubt in our mind that we won’t rebuild,” Singh said. “It’s going to take us a little bit to get the store up and going again, get it cleaned up.”
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