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MILLCREEK — Criminal charges were filed Tuesday against a man accused of running into a Starbucks and attacking an employee before he was shot by a customer.
Benjamin S. Overall, 37, of Salt Lake City, is charged in 3rd District Court with aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, and trespassing, a class B misdemeanor.
Just after 6 a.m. on Oct. 4, after running away from Unified police officers who were trying to question him about another incident, Overall went into a Starbucks at 3898 S. 900 East. He ran behind the counter and punched a woman on the side of her head, according to charging documents.
"She couldn't get away from him, and he continued to strike her on her head, face, neck and shoulders," the charges state.
Overall then allegedly grabbed a metal basket and used it to hit the woman.
"She fell to the floor to try to protect herself, and he started kicking and stomping her and continued to hit her with the basket," the charges state.
That woman, Shelby Hamilton, 24, said she thought she was going to die.
"I didn't really know him, and he didn't really say anything. He just came in the door and … hit me in the back of the head from behind," Hamilton told the Deseret News. "I was the first one he saw."
At one point, she said Overall stopped and asked her, "Do you know who I am?"
"I said, 'No, I don't know who you are,' and it made him very upset, and he started to continue to hit me with his fists," she said.
Related:
‘I don’t want to die this way’: Starbucks clerk relives attack after customer shoots assailant, police say
Shelby Hamilton’s first thought as she lay bruised and bleeding on the ground of a Millcreek Starbucks was that she didn’t want to die this way. It would be a painful way to go.When he was done, Overall "aggressively approached" a man in the store, according to the charges.
The man, a regular patron at the coffee shop who knows Hamilton and has a concealed weapons permit, approached Overall, then shot him once when Overall went after him, according to police.
Overall was convicted of intoxication in May in Salt Lake Justice Court, according to court records. In that incident, he attempted to go into a hotel room that was not his. Overall "could not stand or walk on his own (and) stated that he had drank too much," according to a police affidavit.
