NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio — A man who walked into a North Olmsted Starbucks with a gun and fled the store on foot was taken into custody after exchanging gunfire with officers on Monday morning, according to police.
Officers responded at 8 a.m. to Starbucks at 27178 Lorain Road for a call about a male who police say entered the store with a gun and told people to get to the ground.
Once the male was at the register, he demanded money from the cash register, which employees retrieved and placed in a couple of brown paper bags, Sgt. Matthew Beck told reporters at the crime scene.
The Starbucks location is across the street from the North Olmsted Police Department.
When asked what it was like to see a crime unfold right across from the police station, Beck hinted that perhaps the suspect didn't think things through.
"Only he can answer that one on why he picked the Starbucks location right across the street from the police department in a busy town in the middle of rush hour without a viable way to flee out of town. So again, he can only answer that one," said Beck.
After the man fled the store on foot, he encountered a police officer at Dover Road and Brookpark Extensions.
Police said the man fired two or three rounds at officers, shattering the driver’s side window of a police cruiser. At some point, he dropped the tills of cash on the ground.
The man was captured on the cruiser's dashcam. You can watch it in the player below:
An officer returned fire as the male entered a car in the area, traveling North on Dover Center Road.
Several officers pursued the vehicle until it stopped behind a residence on a cul-de-sac on Kingston Circle. Once the vehicle stopped, the male fired more shots at officers, who also returned fire.
Lynn Hower and her husband live on Kingston Circle. They were still in bed this morning when they heard the chaos outside.
“I started hearing sirens way in the distance, and it was a good maybe 10 minutes later. I could tell some of them were getting closer. And about that time I heard a car going down the street you could tell it was racing," said Hower.
She said she saw the moment the gunman pulled into her neighbor's backyard, quickly followed by police cars.
“The police car was right on his tail. And he started to make a turn into the backyard. And about two seconds later, I could hear probably eight to 10 gunshots," said Hower. “The gunshots scared me to death because you don't hear that around here."
She said after the initial feelings of fear, she thought about the gunman's decision to try to make an escape by turning into a cul-de-sac.
“Wow he picked a cul-de-sac to drive down. The street behind us would have gotten him back out of the development again and—bad day because he took a street that was gonna take him nowhere," said Hower.
After a 15 to 20 minute standoff, the male was eventually taken into custody, police said.
The male was shot several times and is currently hospitalized. The extent of his injuries is still unknown at this time. No police officers were injured.
According to court records, the suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Dominque M. Hullum, of Cleveland, who has been charged with aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony.
"It [the robbery] definitely wasn't a wise decision. He was outmanned, outnumbered, outgunned, the whole nine yards," said Beck. "During his time, where he was debating whether he was going to surrender to us, he kept apologizing to his mother, telling everybody this was an accident, a mistake. So I don't think he had a full-fledged plan on what he was trying to do here today and whatever plan he had and obviously failed quickly."
Pine School, located nearby on Dover Center Road, was placed on lockdown as a safety precaution while the robbery and shooting unfolded, Beck said.
The North Olmsted Police Department said more information will be made available as the investigation continues.
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