JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A well-known comic bookstore on Jacksonville’s Southside is back open after a car crashed into the building last Tuesday night.
“Traumatizing” and “Like a bomb went off” — those were witnesses’ descriptions after the car slammed through “Gotham City Limit.”
Surveillance video shows cries for help from one of the comic bookstore’s employees who was hurt. Customers and other workers were also inside at the time of the crash.
WATCH: Surveillance footage of the crash at Gotham City Limit in the video below.
“I’m coming, I’m coming. Oh my God,” store owner Ben Kingsbury can be heard saying in the surveillance video.
Kingsbury opened the store in 2018.
“I have never experienced any kind of survivor’s guilt, it is very hard for me to think about Santana being hurt and not me,” Kingsbury said. “She is very bruised, very sore and to be quite honest with you, I am a little afraid. I am not sure Santana will ever come back.”
Kingsbury said the driver, who has not been arrested, and a man were in that car.
Kingsbury said he has several questions for police, especially after he said the responding community service officer said “they did not have probable cause to run a sobriety check.”
“How she gained that much speed in this little tiny parking lot to propel herself through the front windows,” Kingsbury said. “The fact that they were just let go on their own recognizance, and that woman could be driving around Jacksonville potentially doing this again today is absolutely terrifying to me.”
The crash left $30,000 worth of merchandise and products lost inside, Kingsbury estimated.
The store now has a temporary front door as the entire front of the store is boarded up. There is no timeline for when it will all get fixed.
But it’s what the community did to help in the aftermath that stands out to Kingsbury: they cleaned and brought gloves, shovels, trash bags, money, cards, and flowers.
A reminder of why Kingsbury opened the store six years ago.
“Comic shops really are the escape from real life. Even if it is for 10 minutes. Life is hard on everybody, no matter what you do,” Kingsbury said. “To see people in the community care. Not only care, but actively feel like they are a part of the shop, I can see the emotion that it elicits on them. It is the reason why I am able to keep going.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said no arrest was made, but a citation was issued.