Cigarette thief gets smoked
Sheriff’s deputies were notified just before 2 a.m. of an armed robbery at the AM PM minimart at the Arco station on Winter Gardens Boulevard near Wintercrest Drive, California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said.
A deputy saw a person who matched the thief’s description leaving the area on a 2007 Harley-Davidson and tried to pull him over, but the rider took off, Pennings said.
The motorcyclist initially headed north on state Route 67, but then he turned around and went south, exited on westbound Mapleview Street and drove around on several streets.
He then got back on southbound Route 67, which was shut down in both directions at Woodside Avenue due to construction work, Pennings said. The highway was blocked by cones and CHP patrol cars and was marked with signs and lights.
“He blew right through the closure,” Pennings said.
In the meantime, a CHP officer who knew the pursuit was heading toward the construction site went to warn the Caltrans workers, Pennings said.
That officer was facing south in his patrol car talking to a Caltrans employee who was sitting in his truck facing north on the highway between concrete barriers when they heard the motorcycle approaching at high speed.
Both men jumped out of their vehicles and took refuge behind the barriers.
The rider had nowhere to go and crashed head-on into the truck. The bike became wedged underneath it and pushed the truck into the patrol car, before bursting into flames, Pennings said.
All three vehicles burned, Pennings said.
The motorcyclist was thrown about 200 feet. Emergency personnel tried to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene about 2:30 a.m.
Neither the CHP officer nor the Caltrans worker was injured.
A revolver was found in the debris, Pennings said.
The man has been identified as 39-year-old Noah Sean Comer of Spring Valley, officials with the Medical Examiner’s Office said.
He may have been affiliated with a local and well-known motorcycle club, the CHP said.
AM PM assistant manager Jalal Shammo said that Comer came into the store and told the clerk to give him the cigarettes for free. When the employee refused, Comer just took them, Shammo said. The clerk told him he was going to call police and Comer told him to go ahead.
“It’s unbelievable,” Shammo said of the fact that Comer was dead minutes later. He said he feels for him and his family.
According to KGTV Channel 10, Comer was separated from his wife and was in the process of getting a divorce.
Source: Cigarette thief gets smoked
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