Oklahoma City Pizza Shop Cleans Up After High-Speed Chase Ends With Crash Into Store

A high-speed chase came to an end inside a southwest Oklahoma City restaurant. 

The chase started about 1 a.m. Tuesday when the business was empty. Now, the owner is left to pick up the pieces.

The owners said he thought a break-in triggered the alarm. When he pulled up, he couldn't believe what he saw. A car's front end was stuck in the building.

"That was the bigger shock to see that so I'm still kind of feeling that," said Cici's Pizza co-owner Perry Grate.

The car has been towed away and Grate is left with a huge hole in the building. That wasn't the only damage the silver sedan caused. 

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the driver also smashed into a bus stop in front of the restaurant on Southwest 29th.

"We went and checked all the way down from impact and it's no skid marks. We were the last pit stop," said Grate.

OHP said the chase started when the suspect hit a construction cone and nearly missed a worker on Interstate 44. That happened near SW 15th, they exited at SW 29th, blew a red like before they crashed into the Cici's less a minute later.

"Those construction zones are always active, and you have to treat them as such a lot of times people will say there's no workers there, but you won't know until you're already up on them you," said Eric Foster with OHP. 

"We could have had a major fatality but thank goodness it was 1 o'clock in the morning and it was a school night," said Grate. "This could have been someone's life taken instead of bricks fallen."

Troopers haven't said if drugs or alcohol played a factor in the chase. 

The suspect and a passenger were taken to a hospital to get checked out. Their names or possible charges have not yet been released. 

Grate said he's thankful the car stopped before driving straight into the kitchen.

"Thank goodness we don't use, but 10% of our business is our lobby and the rest is the drive through, so they didn't damage anything on that side," said Grate.

Grate added they are need inspectors to give them the green light to open back up.