A woman who was critically hurt in an apparent road rage shooting on the city’s Southwest Side last month has succumbed to her injuries, authorities have confirmed.
The 32-year-old woman, whose identity has not been publicly released, was pronounced dead on Thursday, according to Chicago police. Detectives are now conducting a homicide investigation, police said.
Woman, 32, critically injured in Southwest Side traffic shooting, alderman calls it ‘apparent road rage’
The incident took place in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the morning of Oct. 22. The woman was riding as a passenger in a car traveling in the 2400 block of West 47th Street when she was wounded in what a Southwest Side alderman at the time called a road rage incident.
The victim’s husband told police that while driving, he saw another motorist in a gray sedan driving erratically, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune. That sedan pulled up alongside the couple’s vehicle and shots rang out.
The woman was shot in her head and transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was initially listed in critical condition, police said. There were no other reported injuries. After the shooting, the sedan reversed and drove into a Walgreens parking lot before fleeing onto 47th Street, per the police report.
In a post to social media later that morning, Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, warned residents to be cautious of police activity, adding that apparent road rage prompted the shooting.
“The Chicago Police Department 9th District is reviewing all camera footage,” Lopez wrote. “So far, witnesses have identified a gray four-door Toyota Scion with a rear bike rack as the offending vehicle.”
Lopez, talking with the Tribune in the wake of the shooting after speaking with police and witnesses, said the pursuit might have gone on for roughly a mile before the shooting took place. He said he joined detectives at the scene to help retrace what transpired in the hopes of locating the fleeing sedan.
Police at the time did not confirm the road rage motive, saying an investigation by Wentworth Area detectives was ongoing. Asked again on Thursday about the shooting’s motive, police said there were no other updates.
The Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky contributed.