SUV Barrels Through Vacant Mystic Ave Store

Two people were taken to the hospital after an SUV smashed through an empty storefront on Mystic Avenue Wednesday afternoon.

Shortly after 4 p.m., a black Lincoln Navigator drove through the glass windows of an empty storefront in between and at 199 Mystic Ave. A man and a woman were taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Eddie Manganiello was sitting in his car in the parking lot when he heard the crash.

"I heard the glass smash and I thought someone broke the window," Manganiello said. "I looked inside and there was an SUV in there."

Manganiello ran to nearby Demet's Donuts where he hoped to find a police officer on break. But none were there, so he called 911 from the store, he said.

When he returned to the accident scene several civilians were there aiding the two people in the vehicle, he said.

The southbound side of Mystic Avenue was closed as of about 5 p.m. as Medford Police investigated the crash.

The SUV took out a piece of the wall between the empty store and the cleaners, but the damage was otherwise limited to the vacant lot, Deputy fire Chief Scott Graham said. The two in the Lincoln were the only people hurt, he said.

"Fortunately it went into a vacant space," Graham said. "Couldn't have been any luckier there."