A Greensburg police officer testified Thursday that a Hempfield man admitted to inhaling a cleaning solvent shortly before his car crashed into a city storefront.
Officer Jeff Pritts said he asked Brian Ross, 28, of 55 Corbett Ave., about a can of computer cleaner that was found in a yard after Ross' vehicle smashed into the Family Dollar in the Greensburg Shopping Plaza shortly before 8 a.m Sept. 9.
"He stated that (the can) was his, and he had 'huffed' the can of computer cleaner prior to crashing into the store," Pritts said.
District Judge James Albert went on to hold Ross for trial on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol or a solvent, driving while his license was suspended, illegal use of the solvent and other offenses.
Police allege that after Ross' red Ford Escort struck the store window, he ran. He was apprehended a few minutes later.
Pritts testified that Ross said he "huffed" in the plaza parking lot, "then he didn't recall what happened."
Karen Miles, Family Dollar assistant manager, said she was counting money at a register minutes before the store was due to open.
"I heard a loud noise and saw the car coming," Miles testified.
Miles said the car traveled through part of a cement-block wall, crashed through a window and ended up about 10 feet from her. She estimated "two to three feet" of the vehicle was inside the store before it stopped. She guessed the damage amount at "several thousand dollars."
Miles identified Ross as the driver. "He kept saying, 'I don't know what happened," she added.
Hazel "Becky" Wherry, who works at an auto parts store in the plaza, described Ross as "high or something."
"I didn't think it was alcohol, because there was no smell," Wherry said. "I thought it was drugs."
At one point, Ross tried to back out of the store but couldn't, she said.
Rosemary Grimm, who lives near the plaza, said she saw a man running through her and her neighbors' yards.
When she went outside, she discovered a solvent can in her yard, she said.
Officer Kevin Rehak said a blood test failed to show difluoroethane, the cleaning product's active ingredient, in Ross' blood.
Assistant District Attorney Mike Pacek began to ask questions that indicated the ingredient doesn't last long in a person's bloodstream but stopped when Public Defender Attorney Bompiani objected.
