CLEVELAND — Authorities were searching for a driver who drove into the Cuyahoga River early Monday morning. Police said he later returned to the scene and told police that nobody else was in the water.
Crews were searching for the driver and the car that was heading eastbound on Elm Street and drove into the river in the Flats West Bank, according to a witness on scene.
A witness said he was driving across the bridge in the Flats when he saw a car's headlights go into the river near the Center Street Swing Bridge.
News 5 has obtained surveillance video from a nearby apartment building which shows the car careening off the boardwalk into the water.
A witness called 911 ,and when he looked back at the river, the car was already submerged. Coast guard and fire crews resumed their search for the driver later Monday morning.
Police are also looking into an Instagram video which shows a middle-aged man, soaking wet, climbing out of the water and asking two bystanders for a cigarette. The camera pans to the river to show the car partially-submerged in the water. News 5 has asked police if they are still searching for the driver; they said they are aware of the video.
Police later confirmed to News 5 that the man who drove the car into the river went home, then returned to the to the scene later and told police that no one else was in the water. Police said that's when the operation became an effort to recover the vehicle from the river. Police said the man will likely face a slew of tickets, but he has not been arrested for OVI at this time.
The Cleveland Fire Rescue seems to be assembling. Multiple people in dive suits. The water is 33 degrees and dropping. @WEWS pic.twitter.com/d4de70CcYA
— Jessi Schultz (@Jessi_Dianne) March 4, 2019
