Lakeview hit-and-run: 1 in custody after delivery driver accused of striking woman with car, refusing to social distance

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The owner of a Lakeview restaurant said her daughter was hurt in a hit-and-run crash that involved a Grubhub delivery driver.

Cell video from Friday night shows the moments before the accused delivery driver for Grubhub ran over a worker of a Lakeview East restaurant before driving off.

"I was so scared," the victim's mother Angenita Tanner said. "I have never seen anything like this. It was just something crazy out of TV. It was just surreal. I thought he was going to kill my baby."

Tanner is the owner of Ms. T's Southern Fried Chicken at 3343 N. Broadway on Chicago's North Side. The victim in this hit-and-run was her 24-year-old daughter, Bijan Early, who helps out on the weekends.

A witness gave her this video capturing the driver hitting Early, who Tanner said suffers from broke multiple bones and is currently in intensive care.

"She is on a breathing machine," Tanner said. "She is sedated because she is so much pain."

Tanner said the driver became angry after she told him to wait outside due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"My social distancing rule is one customer at time," she said. "He told me no. He stood against the door and he said 'I am not leaving.' I said, 'well sir this is for your health as well as ours to protect yourself.' He said 'I don't want to.'"

Tanner said he then kicked their door and left the restaurant. That's when she and her daughter went outside to get his license plate number for police and Grubhub.

"We were standing in front of his car so I said, 'why did you do that?' He said, 'I didn't do anything,'" Tanner recalled.

Soon after exchanging words again, he threatened to run her daughter over if she didn't move.

A short time later he followed through on the threat and drove off.

"What I want to say to this driver is turn yourself in. You know what you did. You said what you were going to do before you did it," Tanner said.

She said restaurants owners are already facing difficult times and all she was trying to do was follow the social distancing guidelines.

"Just trying to make a day's living for me and my family, and for something like this to happen; and the thing about it is we are all trying to make a living. This was uncalled for," she stated.

Chicago police confirmed that there was an argument between a pedestrian and a driver that led to a hit-and-run on Chicago's North Side Friday.

Police said a man in Prius was parked near a crosswalk in the 3200-block of North Broadway shortly before 6:30 p.m. when he got into an argument with a 24-year-old woman. The driver struck her with his car, then fled north on Broadway, police said.

The woman was taken to Illinois Masonic with non-life threatening injuries to her head and arm, police said.

An investigation is ongoing.

Chicago police confirmed Sunday a person of interest has turned themselves in and charges are pending.

"We are shocked and appalled by these reports, and our hearts go out to the person injured and her family," a Grubhub spokeswoman said. "We have revoked this driver's access to our platform and terminated his contract with us. We are fully cooperating with the Chicago Police Department and have reached out to provide them with information about this driver."

The spokeswoman also said Grubhub does extensive motor vehicle and criminal background checks, and continuously runs checks while any driver is contracted with them. This driver cleared all background checks, and he had no prior reports of misconduct, according to Grubhub.