McHenry police release report on Starbucks crash

When police responded to a crash Jan. 16 at the Starbucks in McHenry, they tried to clear everyone from the building because of the "frailty of the structure and the smell of gas."

But one employee, a 23-year-old woman from Carpentersville, didn't move.

"The female appeared to be in shock and was continuing to work," an officer wrote in the police report, received by the Northwest Herald via a Freedom of Information Act request. "Her back was to me, and I began to yell at her to exit the building. The female either didn't hear me or was in shock and could not register what was going on, but she would not turn around and acknowledge me."

The report detailed how 53-year-old Michael Kuti of Wonder Lake crashed his pickup truck into the Starbucks about 4:40 p.m. Jan. 16, but it did not reveal the medical issue that caused Kuti to lose control of his vehicle and crash into the building.

The McHenry Fire Department had to extricate Kuti from his vehicle. He was not charged or ticketed in connection with the crash, and McHenry police have refused to release the medical cause.

The report also included details from witnesses at the scene as they dealt with what had just happened.

One witness said he saw the truck "out of the corner of his eye" traveling in the same direction as him before it veered across both eastbound lanes of traffic and jumped the curb.

The witness said it appeared Kuti was "slumped over the wheel" as the truck was headed toward Starbucks.

The truck then went through a grassy area and did not appear to slow down before crashing into the northeast corner of the building.

Officers were dispatched to the scene with knowledge that a person was trapped under debris.

During the investigation, an officer met with Youth Pastor Tim Meister and Matthew Marshall, 19, of Wonder Lake, who had been trying to help an injured 21-year-old employee from Ingleside who was trapped under the truck.

Marshall told the Northwest Herald in January they couldn't see the employee and only heard his screams for help.

After some time, an officer wrote in the report, the fire department found and extricated the employee from under the debris. The employee was conscious and breathing at the time, but he was flown by Flight for Life to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.

Others injured in the crash were released at the scene or taken to Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital.

The employee who had been trapped has since taken to Facebook to announce he was doing better but declined an interview request regarding the crash.

The McHenry Fire Department retrieved another employee from inside the restaurant.

"The fireman brought the female to me," the report said. "I observed her to have lacerations to her face, but she was unable to communicate with me."

One officer circled the building and found others who had been inside Starbucks at the time of the crash. They were surrounding a woman lying on the ground who was believed to be a 36-year-old from McHenry.

"This woman appeared to have lacerations to her face and was also in extreme pain," according to the report.

An employee who was serving a customer at the drive-through when the vehicle crashed through the building said she saw the maroon truck heading west on the grassy area directly east of the Starbucks.

"(She) stated it took her a minute to figure out what was going on," an officer wrote in the report. "But then she understood the truck was not going to stop. She began to yell and ran from the drive-through area."