Grandmother shot in head through window of Chatham home speaks out: 'I started screaming'

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago shooting victim spoke out Friday after she was shot while inside her home Thursday.

The shooting happened around 6:40 p.m. Thursday in the 8000 block of South Princeton Avenue in West Chatham, Chicago police said.

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The victim, Sabrina Hunter, said after being shot in the head, she had just enough strength to find her cell phone and call police. She spoke to ABC7 from her hospital bed, saying she's thankful she's alive and surrounded by her family.

"I just felt something hit me like a blow," Hunter said. "Got up and I said, 'I'm shot! I'm shot in my head!' And, I started screaming and calling my momma."

But, no one was there. The 47-year-old grandmother was home alone.

"Then, I just started quoting scriptures, and... I couldn't see nothing," Hunter said. "Like, I couldn't see the phone. Everything was blurry for me... I didn't panic. I just felt the calm of God. He gave me his peace and comfort. He gave me his peace."

Her desperate efforts to call for help prevailed, with police responding soon after.

"I know my God is real," Hunter said.

In her agony and despair, instead of being angry with whoever did this, she's calling on her faith that, she says, made her a survivor.

"We can't respond and react with violence. We can't," Hunter said. "I just feel that we need God. We need God."

Hunter's family said she was lucky enough to avoid having surgery, at least for now. They don't know when she'll get released from the hospital.

No further information about the circumstances surrounding the shooting was immediately available.

Chicago police continue to investigate. No arrests have been made.

Neighbors expressed concern Friday after a woman was shot by bullet that came through the window of her West Chatham home on South Princeton Avenue.

Neighbors ABC7 spoke to Friday said it is a quiet street and rarely sees this type of violence. But that changed Thursday night when they heard six shots, one striking Hunter in the head in her front room. The bullet hole can still be seen in the window.

Holiday decorations have been hung all along the street. Celebrations of the season shown in stark contrast to brutal Chicago realities.

"It was all so traumatizing that that happened," neighbor Linda Fields said. "And so many bullets, like six, eight bullets. How serious can that be with so many bullets."

Fields has lived on the 8000 block of South Princeton Avenue for the last four years and says she's appalled at what she heard happen Thursday evening, when police say a bullet came through the front window of a home and struck a 47-year-old woman in the head.

She was taken to this hospital in critical condition. Neighbors told ABC7 she has children.

"It's just terrifying to hear something like that," Fields said. "That's traumatizing to a child."

Fields said after the shooting, a car sped off around the block. Another neighbor, Dwayne Reddick, said he heard the shots and the aftermath.

"Police... you hear nothing but police and the ambulance coming from that way," Reddick said.

Ald. David Moore of the 17th Ward said he's been updated by the area police commander, but the investigation is still early.

"Here some punks, if you will, have taken not thinking, just going around trying to shoot someone else and hit an innocent person not knowing the impact of their actions," Moore said. "Not only on this one young lady, but her children as well, who have to deal with this during this holiday season."

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"Just Chicago... we gotta get better," Reddick said. "As a group, as people, get better."