Police: Suspect faces 2 murder charges in restaurant plowing

A man intentionally rammed a vehicle into a North Carolina restaurant busy serving Sunday lunch, killing his daughter and another person and injuring several others, authorities said.

Bessemer City Police said in a statement that preliminary evidence indicates Roger Self, 62, purposely smashed his way into the Surf and Turf Lodge where reports say families were eating a relaxed midday meal.

This frame grab from video provided by WSOC-TV 9 in Charlotte, N.C., shows a scene where a man intentionally rammed a vehicle into a restaurant busy with a lunchtime crowd, Sunday, May 20, 2018, killing his daughter and another person and injuring several others, in Bessemer City, N.C., according to authorities. (Courtesy of WSOC-TV 9 via AP)

Footage from the scene showed emergency responders treating people on the ground outside the restaurant as shocked patrons milled about in the aftermath of the crash. Killed was 26-year-old Katelyn Tyler Self, the daughter of the driver and a Gaston County Sheriff's Office deputy. Authorities haven't released the name of the second person fatally injured, saying they were still notifying relatives.

Police said Roger Self was arrested after the vehicle had fully slammed its way inside the steak and seafood restaurant in Bessemer City, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Charlotte. Jail records show he's been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his daughter and his daughter-in-law, Amanda Self, a nurse. The Gaston Gazette reports Amanda Self was the wife of Gaston County Police Officer Josh Self, who also was seriously injured, along with Roger Self's wife, Diane, and the 13-year-old daughter of Josh and Amanda Self.

The paper identified Roger Self as a businessman from Dallas, North Carolina.

This frame grab from video provided by WSOC-TV 9 in Charlotte, N.C., shows an aerial view of the scene where a man intentionally rammed a vehicle into a restaurant busy with a lunchtime crowd, Sunday, May 20, 2018, killing his daughter and another person and injuring several others, in Bessemer City, N.C., according to authorities. (Courtesy of WSOC-TV 9 via AP)

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman Rob Tufano called the crash a "mass casualty" incident, and reports said some of the victims were flown by helicopter to Carolinas Medical Center. There was no immediate count on the number of injured or the extent of the injuries.

"He drove his car into the building, killing people, so that's why we took him into custody immediately," Bessemer City Police Chief Thomas Ellis Jr. said. He gave no indication what might have prompted the crash.

Photographs from the scene showed a shattered opening in a restaurant wall, where the car had smashed inside the building.

The Gaston Gazette identified the vehicle as a sports utility vehicle.

Authorities work the scene of a restaurant where police say a man intentionally rammed a vehicle into the steak and seafood eatery shortly after midday Sunday, May 20, 2018, in Bessemer City, N.C., leaving his 26-year-old daughter and one other person dead and several others injured. The vehicle's driver, Roger Self, was immediately arrested. Jail records show he’s been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. (Kevin Ellis/The Gaston Gazette via AP)

Caleb Martin, a 14-year-old who busses tables at the restaurant, told a broadcast outlet that he saw the vehicle suddenly smash through a wall into the restaurant.

"I walked over to my station and I heard a loud boom," he told WSOC-TV. "It went straight through."

He added, "The one guy I could help in back, he was pretty hurt." He said he was stunned but managed to help paramedics move tables off the person and debris out of the way so the injured could be treated.

Katelyn Self was a four-year veteran of the Gaston County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Alan Cloninger told The Charlotte Observer. The sheriff said the deputy had worked as a corporal in the jail and was off duty when she was fatally injured.

This Sunday, May 20, 2018, booking photo provided by the Gaston County Sheriff's Office shows Roger Self. Police say that Self intentionally rammed a vehicle into a restaurant shortly after midday Sunday, May 20, 2018, in Bessemer City, N.C., leaving his 26-year-old daughter and one other person dead and several others injured. Self was immediately arrested. Jail records show he’s been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. (Gaston County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Cloninger choked up as he spoke about the crash.

"Tragic, tragic loss of life," he told reporters. "I'm asking people just to keep the family in your prayers, and the sheriff's office, because we're suffering right now."

The sheriff's office later tweeted a photograph of the deputy via social media, adding "Our hearts are broken" and that the agency was asking for thoughts and prayers not only for the deputy's family and friends but also for her "brothers and sisters in uniform."

This frame grab from video provided by WSOC-TV 9 in Charlotte, N.C., shows an aerial view of the scene where a man intentionally rammed a vehicle into a restaurant busy with a lunchtime crowd, Sunday, May 20, 2018, killing his daughter and another person and injuring several others, in Bessemer City, N.C., according to authorities. (Courtesy of WSOC-TV 9 via AP)

A 2017 profile in the Gazette said Roger Self ran a private investigations business called Southeastern Loss Management. It said the business opened in 1989 and mostly helped companies investigate employees' wrongdoing.

Authorities said the family was requesting privacy and referred any questions to the family's pastor. Messages left at the phone of the pastor by The Associated Press were not immediately returned.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.

Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).

Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.

That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.

In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.

Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.

In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.

“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.

Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.

It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.

“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.

It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.

While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.

“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.

Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.

Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)