Oakland Crash
What started as an overnight robbery at a tobacco store in East Bay quickly turned into a police pursuit and a tragic wrong-way crash near the Bay Bridge.
Surveillance video shows a van backing into the Tobacco Outlet on San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito, smashing the entrance around 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Two masked thieves, a 34-year-old man from Oakland and a 56-year-old man from San Francisco, can be seen loading the van's bed with whatever they could, even at one point taking away a whole case of products.
"This is something common now as you know. It has been happening more and more," said the owner, Omar, pointing out that the suspects then fled.
Omar said his store has been robbed six times, but this was the worst.
The Oakland Highway Patrol says the suspects led El Cerrito Police on a chase, which was later canceled.
Shortly after, authorities say the suspects drove the wrong way on the I-580 connector to the westbound I-80, which is the access to the Bay Bridge.
The van collided head-on with two other vehicles, killing one driver and seriously injuring the other.
The two people in the wrong-way vehicle also suffered serious injuries.
Two lanes of the ramp were closed for several hours, causing a major traffic jam for commuters.
As for Omar, he's not sure what's next for his business, as he says it will cost him $50,000 to reopen.
"I'm ready to retire at this point, I'm just fed up," he said. "I'm so heartbroken and angry that some innocent person who was just going about their day, going to work, that was it for them because some scumbags decided to be scumbags."
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