June 1, 2026
Casey Marcy, an Army veteran who is the front of house manager at Rocky’s Soda Shop and Grill, looks at the boarded-up window of Looking Glass Reality in downtown Brevard Sunday morning. Almost 24 hours earlier, Marcy applied emergency first-aid to two motorcycle riders who crashed through the thick glass window facing Broad Street after their vehicle malfunctioned around 10:30 Saturday morning. Jonathan Rich / Brevard Beagle
Jonathan Rich
BrevardBeagle.com
A large glass window in front of Looking Glass Reality was shattered Saturday after a motorcycle malfunctioned and propelled its two passengers across the sidewalk and into the business.
Emergency officials say both riders would have likely succumbed to their injuries on the scene had it not been for the field-tested first-aid supplied by a quick-acting employee of the adjacent Rocky’s Soda Shop and Grill who used his Army combat medic training to attend to their substantial lacerations until paramedics arrived.
The collision happened about 10:30 a.m. on May 30 when most downtown Brevard businesses had barely opened to customers for a brisk spring day. Incident reports indicate Matthew Farris of Boiling Springs, S.C. was travelling west on Jordon with a passenger riding on the back of his 2025 Harley Davidson motorcycle approaching Broad Street to make a right turn when the electronic throttle of his vehicle malfunctioned causing the vehicle to unexpectedly accelerate without warning. The bike skipped 10 feet from the road onto the sidewalk as Farris lost control of the vehicle and it roared into the thick picture window and front door of Looking Glass Reality on Broad Street.
The commotion startled the mid-morning shoppers quietly perusing the downtown business district and easily got the attention of employees at both Rocky’s Corner Market and the connected retro soda shop across from the real estate offices which were closed at the time.
That’s when Casey Marcy, the front of house manager at Rocky’s soda fountain and restaurant, sprang into action.
“I was setting up the front of the house when the owner came in. She was working next door at Rocky’s Corner Market when some lady came in from outside and they grabbed our medical bag,” Marcy explained. “I asked what happened and she said there was a motorcycle wreck. I walked outside and that’s when I saw the severity of what was going on. They hit that door jam and there was glass everywhere.”
Marcy said he jumped through the hole in the glass wall, then took off his apron and with a belt from his restaurant attire fashioned both into a tourniquet to apply to the injured.
“I started working on him and he was worried about his rider,” the six-year military veteran who served in Iraq said. “He was standing over her with the severity of injuries to his leg and a pretty severe gash on his arm. I tied my apron as tight as I could and applied direct pressure to his right arm, but then he started fainting. He is a big guy, so I started trying to hold him up and stabilize him with his left arm. The lady was behind me on the ground. I sat him down on a chair, but he started passing out again. I applied more pressure to get him back talking and by then the Brevard Fire Department arrived to take over.”
Paramedics from Transylvania County Emergency Medical Services offered further support in the glass-strewn foyer of the local real estate office and continued to attend to both the biker and his passenger.
They were transported to Mission Hospital in Asheville where they were later treated and released for non life-threatening injuires. The motorist broke his leg and the female passenger sustained multiple scratches and lacerations. Both are expected to make a full recovery, a diagnosis which surprised Marcy.
“That’s amazing,” he said before opening the soda shop for another busy, but far more tranquil day of business, Sunday morning. “Based on what I saw, that’s awesome to hear. They were both really scratched up when I saw them loaded into the ambulance.”
The glass window facing the Broad Street sidewalk as well as the front door frame and some furnishings inside the real estate office sustained an estimated $8,000 in damage. The motorcycle sustained an estimated $20,000 in damage to the front and left sides of the vehicle. Farris was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision.
“Fortunately nobody was on the sidewalk or in the office when the accident happened,” said Paul Wilander of Looking Glass Reality. “All of the first responders were on top of their game and I’m glad to hear the two riders will be able to recover from this sad event.”