EDMONTON -- Three people are dead after a vehicle crashed into a business on Calgary Trail early Friday morning.
A 25-year-old Oscar Benjumea will be charged in relation to the fatal crash once his condition is stabilized in hospital, Edmonton Police Service said.
Officers were called to Calgary Trail and 55 Avenue at approximately 2:20 a.m. after an Audi sedan struck the wall of a Starbucks.
Three people — two women, aged 21 and 20, and a man, 32 — were found dead in an Audi RS5, police said.
A male driver who was unidentified for a period of time fled on foot before police arrived, EPS said in the morning, announcing later that day Benjumea had been found at his home and taken into custody.
"Benjumea fled the scene of this morning’s deadly collision, at Calgary Trail and 55 Avenue, prior to the arrival of police. Investigators were eventually made aware of the suspect’s whereabouts late this morning, and he was arrested shortly thereafter at his residence," a statement from police reads.
His charges were set to be sworn in Friday evening. Police said the man, from Ontario, had sustained serious but non-life threatening injuries.
MAN SUSPECTED OF FLEETING FATAL CRASH REPORTED MISSING
Benjumea had been reported missing earlier in the day by a longtime friend and business parter.
Cameron Kane, CEO of Strathcona pot shop The Bud King, told CTV News Edmonton he filed a missing persons report when Benjumea did not show up for an 11 a.m. start time.
The Audi RS5 involved in the crash had an Ontario licence plate.
Kane said Benjumea has a car that matches the vehicle and plate description — a vanity plate that reads "DRGREEN" — of the vehicle that collided with the Starbucks.
“That was definitely his car. And then it’s just a matter of know if he was the driver or not the driver,” Kane had told CTV News Edmonton earlier on Friday, recalling waking up to texts and photos of the scene.
He told CTV News Edmonton he talked to Benjumea around 11:15 p.m. Thursday, and that Benjumea had gone to a bar with friends.
"If it was him, he already left the scene, but definitely the right thing to do is if he’s hurt go to the hospital and definitely call police. You have to do the right thing,” he pleaded, hours before police would confirm they had taken in his friend.
So far, investigators are considering speed a factor in the crash.
The area was closed for several hours while police was on scene but has since reopened to traffic.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Edmonton police at 780-423-4567 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Dan Grummett
