A 70-year-old woman was struck by a man driving a black SUV during an argument on Chicago's West Side Saturday night, and as the SUV was leaving, someone opened fire on the vehicle, according to police. The crash happened around 9:22 p.m. in the 3300-block of West Jackson Boulevard. No one was hit by the gunfire, and the woman was rushed to a nearby hospital.
According to ABC7 Chicago, Chicago police said the man struck the woman with the SUV in the midst of an argument before someone fired shots at the vehicle as it was leaving. The woman was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, and her condition was not immediately known at the time of the report.
A Trauma Center Built for Cases Like This
Mount Sinai Hospital sits in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's West Side and operates a Level I Adult Trauma Center that treats roughly 2,000 severe trauma patients a year, per background compiled from Wikipedia. A woman critically hurt in a late-night hit-and-run on West Van Buren Street in August was also rushed there, as Hoodline reported in its piece on that West Side hit-and-run.
It remains unclear whether the SUV driver stopped at any point or whether the incident is being treated as a hit-and-run. Under the Illinois Vehicle Code, failing to stop and remain at the scene of a crash involving personal injury is a Class 4 felony punishable by one to three years in prison and mandatory license revocation, according to research from Stavros Law. Separately, intentionally or knowingly striking a person with a vehicle can be prosecuted as Aggravated Battery with a Motor Vehicle under state law, a felony generally carrying two to five years in prison; when great bodily harm is caused to a victim over 60, the offense is a Class 2 felony carrying three to seven years, per legal analysis from The Chicago Defense Firm.
A West Side Pattern of Fleeing Drivers
Saturday's crash is the latest in a string of West Side vehicle incidents Hoodline has tracked in recent months. Earlier in October, a cyclist was killed in a Garfield Park crash. In September, a 17-year-old in West Garfield Park suffered a cracked skull in a hit-and-run while his family searched for the driver largely on their own. A separate hit-and-run in the Loop injured two people.
The Chicago Police Department's Major Accident Investigation Unit typically takes over crashes involving critical injury or death.
The Numbers Behind the Danger
Chicago recorded 9,176 total motor vehicle collisions in September, a 5.7% jump compared to the same month last year, according to data compiled by Briskman Briskman & Greenberg. Saturday's crash happened at 9:22 p.m.
The odds of an arrest in hit-and-run cases remain grim citywide. Chicago police solve fewer than 1% of hit-and-run crashes annually, with a clearance rate of just 0.8% across more than 37,000 collisions in a recent audited year and 9.4% in cases involving severe injury or death, per the Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. analysis. That same analysis found hit-and-run drivers were responsible for roughly 55% of all pedestrian fatalities in Chicago in 2023, more than double the 24% national average.
Still, some West Side neighborhoods have seen progress. Crash data compiled by Keating Law Offices showed a 39% decline across four West Side neighborhoods.
No arrests have been reported in connection with Saturday night's crash or the gunfire that followed. The 70-year-old victim's current condition has not been released.
