PORT ANGELES — Grandview Grocery reopened for business Wednesday after a motorist accused of drunken driving plowed his car into the neighborhood market the evening before, injuring a store clerk and damaging the store.
The four-door Hyundai driven by Brice G. Mbili-Ambamba, 25, of Port Angeles jumped the cement parking barrier and crashed into the front of the building, Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith said.
The car went through the wall of the store at Eighth and C streets on the west side of Port Angeles, tossing cigarette displays and the checkout area.
Clerk Shana Menlove, 22 — who was behind the counter with another employee, Jordan Cromer, 26 — was trapped, her ankle pinned in the debris between the car, the broken wall and the counter area.
Mbili-Ambamba was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence, vehicular assault, making false statements to a law enforcement officer and driving without a valid operator’s license with no identification.
Mbili-Ambamba is a native of Cameroon, located on the west coast of Central Africa, and his immigration status is being investigated, Smith said.
He and an unidentified woman passenger, the owner of the car, were not injured.
Menlove’s foot was freed by Kiersten Radden-Wold and another unidentified woman who climbed over the counter to pull debris away from her.
Then they elevated her injured ankle and placed an ice pack on it before emergency medical technicians arrived.
Menlove was driven to Olympic Medical Center in a private vehicle.
On Wednesday, she was recovering from a bruised ankle, said Jim Cromer, who has for five years owned the neighborhood market, gas station and coffee shop that has been in business at the same location since the early 1950s.
The wreck left the inside of the store strewn with debris from the damaged wall as well as food and merchandise that had been knocked to the floor.
The store reopened early Wednesday after temporary repairs, Cromer said.
The building sustained extensive damage to the front door and east wall right behind the checkout area.
The owner of the car has insurance, Smith said, but Cromer also indicated that the store carries a policy.
Peninsula College confirmed that Mbili-Ambamba is a former exchange student at the school.
“He received an Associate in Business in 2008,” said Phyllis Van Holland, spokeswoman for the college.
As of Wednesday afternoon, he was in custody in the Clallam County jail, with an immigration detainer placed on him by the U.S. Border Patrol for being out of compliance with immigration law.
Smith noted that being “out of compliance” can mean simply not having proper identification on your person at the time of contact with law enforcement officers.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
