Man who rammed car into N.C. restaurant was having breakdown
The North Carolina man who drove his Jeep into a restaurant — killing his daughter and daughter-in-law — had been having mental issues over the last few months, his pastor said.
Roger Self was arrested Sunday afternoon when he drove the SUV into the Surf and Turf Lodge in Bessemer City, N.C., where his family was eating.
But the family’s pastor in Dallas, N.C., claimed “there is no way the man I've known for 16 years could do this.”
“It's very possible that in his mind, he was thinking the best thing for this family was that they all go to heaven together,” Rev. Austin Rammell said at a news conference Monday.
His 26-year-old daughter, Katelyn Self, was a Gaston County sheriff’s deputy and killed when the Jeep came plowing into the restaurant.
She’d arranged for the family to have lunch after church services Sunday, , the pastor said, hoping it’d perk up Self — who suddenly stood up during appetizers.
“Some of them thought he was probably going to leave and come back,” Rammell said. “They began noticing his car out in the parking lot had circled, and the next thing you know he came through the window.”
Amanda Self, his daughter-in-law and a nurse, was also killed in the crash.
Self’s wife, son, a Gaston County police officer, and 13-year-old grandaughter were injured but expected to survive, authorities said.
The 62-year-old suspect, who faces two counts of first-degree murder, ran a private investigation firm specializing in wrongdoing at companies in Gaston, N.C.
He’d suffered from bouts of anxiety and depression over the last several months, Rammell told reporters. But he was aware enough to have his son take his guns more than two months ago.
“This wasn't your normal, what you and I would go through when something bad happens in life,” Rammell told reporters Monday, adding his condition worsened over the weekend.
With News Wire Services
