Rochester Officers Save Man from Burning Car – [VIDEO]
Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) Two Rochester police officers are being credited with saving the life of a man who crashed a car into a commercial building Thursday night. Turns out the man is an out of state Catholic priest who may have had too much to drink.
Police Captain John Sherwin says 65 year old Leo Holleran was southbound on Marion Road around 10 p.m. when he collided with another vehicle that was going the same direction. His car then went off the road and crashed into the Cassidy Mechanical building located in the 1200 block of Marion Road.The car struck the building’s electrical box, starting a fire.
Sherwin says officers Jeff Stobbs and Hwat Lou arrived and checked on Holleran, who had been knocked out. He had to be removed from the passenger side because the driver’s side door was jammed. Moments after he was freed, the car was engulfed. The building was also damaged.
Holleran was taken to St. Mary’s for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. He said he had been in Winona earlier and also had a few drinks while at a Rochester restaurant before the crash.
Sherwin says records show he had a 2001 DUI conviction in Georgia and another one in Pennsylvania in 2006. Sherwin says charges against Holleran are pending as investigators are waiting for results of a blood test.
The moments after the actual rescue were recorded by a police body cam (see video above). It marked the first time since the Rochester Police Department began testing the cameras that the video has been requested by members of the media.
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