Video captures police response after West Englewood drive-by, woman shot in head by stray bullet

Eric Horng Image
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Police credited with saving woman shot in head by stray bullet
Police said the woman shot may not have survived if officers had not spotted a bullet hole in her home's window.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago police are being credited with saving a woman's life after gunfire erupted in West Englewood Tuesday, wounding two people, including a woman hit in the head by a stray bullet.

RELATED: Video captures West Englewood drive-by shooting that injured 2, including woman inside home

Police said the woman shot may not have survived if officers had not spotted a bullet hole in her home's window.

New exclusive surveillance video gives us a glimpse at the chaos that followed gunfire in what neighbors describe as an ambush.

"Someone just rolled down the block, hanging out the window, just shooting at anybody he saw," said John Edwards, who lives on the block. "He shot at my brother, my nephew, just shooting at random people that's outside.

Police said a white sedan traveling in the 7300-block of South Wolcott Avenue shortly before 1 p.m. Tuesday with two people inside opened fire at the street. The shooting was captured by a neighbor's doorbell camera.

"I ran to the door, and I seen people just scrambling, and I seen people laying on the ground, ducking, diving, trying to hide from the shots," said Wanda Washington, who lives on the block.

Washington's son and husband just barely escaped the bullets. In the Ring doorbell video, her son can be seen diving behind a parked car to escape the gunfire.

"I was in tears," she said. "I got on my knees and I just started praying. I was like 'Oh God. Are you OK? Are you OK?'"

"It's a traumatic scene right there," said Officer Rodolfo Farias with Chicago Police Department. "You think about your loved-ones. Could've been my wife, my kids."

Sergeant Rudy Vargas, and Officers Rudolfo Farias and Michael Kocanda were among the first to arrive at the scene.

Police initially helping 21-year-old Tony Hobbs who was on the sidewalk, and wounded in the stomach and back.

Neighbor Antonio Gilmore works as a paramedic in the suburbs, and applied pressure to the wounded man's back and stomach wounds.

"Tried to keep his pulse down, his respiration down, trying to keep him from panicking and losing more blood," Gilmore said.

As the first responders assessed the panic gripped neighborhood, officers make a tragic discovery when they noticed a bullet hole in a window at a home on the other end of the block.

That's when they found a 35-year-old shot in the face and unresponsive inside.

"[It] appeared that she was sitting on the couch when she got shot, and her cell phone was laying right on the couch, [within] arm's reach," Sgt. Vargas said.

Their quick actions after the gunfire perhaps saving her life before she was transported to Christ Hospital in critical condition.

Hobbs was also transported to Christ Hospital in stable condition.

"I had just talked to him and he said he was going to get a blueberry iced-tea," said Hobbs' mother Antoinette Burt said. "Minding his business. You all shot somebody you don't even know. Just random. Random. Random. You almost took my baby's life...He had a collapsed lung. They ripped through his spleen. His diaphragm and his colon, they could have killed him."

Burt said her family has lived on the block for less than a year. Her son recently enrolled at Kennedy-King College where he hopes to obtain a degree in construction management.

"I don't want to be around here now. I don't," Burt said. "Why can't you sit on your porch? Why can't you sit in your living room? Like this doesn't make sense.

"It was just shocking to see somebody laying on the floor. You don't expect that, and I just hope she makes a full recovery. That's it," said Officer Kocanda.

"Could've been my daughter," said Washington. "I have a daughter. It could have been anybody's, you know... it's just sad. This has to stop."

The conditions of those two shooting victims have been stabilized, however police are still searching for the two people inside that white sedan. A motive for the shooting is still unclear.