SUV crashes into Midtown bookstore
The owner of a Midtown bookstore said he was grateful no one was injured Tuesday after a vehicle crashed into the store’s front doors and landed inside the children’s section.
“It sounded like a truck hit the building. It was explosive,” said Benjamin Nockels, owner of Commonplace Books, 1325 N Walker, which opened in 2017.
A black SUV had just hit another car at the nearby intersection of NW 13 Street and Walker Avenue when it pulled into a parking space in front of the store, witnesses said. Instead of stopping in the parking space, the SUV accelerated and crashed through the two glass doors that serve as the children’s entrance to the bookstore.
The SUV was almost completely inside the store when it came to a stop.
Nockels said he was inside the bookstore’s attached cafe space when he heard the accident and immediately worried about one of his daughters who was inside the bookstore.
“I called out her name,” Nockels said about his daughter, whom he quickly found unharmed. “I was mostly grateful that everybody was OK. It’s just stuff that can be replaced.”
The store’s unofficial mascot, a Pyrenees mix dog named Boz, was also unharmed.
“I just heard a big sound,” said Honor Carr, 12, who was in the cafe when the accident happened. “The black car drove in and it tried to drive back out, but all the people got up from the table and started yelling ‘stop.’”
Witnesses said the driver exited the SUV and took a seat on a green couch inside the store where he remained until police arrived.
Located on the ground floor of The Edge apartments, Commonplace Books has become a popular retail destination in the growing Midtown neighborhood and has been featured in multiple national publications, including The Washington Post.
The bookstore is in the process of opening an attached cafe and has recently added sidewalk seating.
Nockels said he views the bookstore as much more than a business, but instead a living room for the city. He regularly offers customers a drink and refers to his employees as family.
At one point Tuesday while he was on the phone with an insurance agent, Nockels put the call on mute to ask arriving employees about the gender of their future child, yelling congratulations when they said it was a girl.