According to Ft Payne Police Chief Randy Bynum, the individual who died after crashing his vehicle into a building in downtown Ft Payne during the early morning hours of Tuesday, is the same man who allegedly robbed a Gault Avenue convenience store moments earlier.

Police were dispatched to the South End Market at 4:43am, in response to a report of a man walking into the store armed with a hammer.

Employees said he smashed one of the beverage coolers – and took a carton of beer, before leaving the store and fleeing north on Gault Avenue in a car. 

The News Release from the Ft Payne PD made no mention of any money being taken.

Officers spotted that vehicle, traveling at a high rate of speed near Sixth Avenue.  The driver lost control of the car in the 200 block of Gault Avenue South – striking an aluminum light in front of Ft Payne Fire Station #2 before continuing across the parking lot and hitting a curb, which sent the car airborne before crashing into the side of the old Quinn Building.

Joshua Christian Grant, age 25 of Altoona, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The investigation into that fatal crash, is being conducted by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.