The wife and children were not injured, but are left devastated, wondering who shot their loved one and why.
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The victim's wife said they were visiting family and headed home in the northbound lanes of I-55 at Ashland Avenue when the shooting happened.
Humberto Marin-Garcia, 28, had just gotten onto the Stevenson Expressway near Damen Avenue with his family when their car came under fire at about 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
His wife Mayra Solis said she heard what sounded like an explosion.
"At first I thought it was a wheel," she said. "When I turned around and my baby is sitting on her car seat and I look out the window and it was shattered."
Solis, who is six months pregnant with their third child, said her husband was screaming, telling his 11 and 3-year-old daughters to get down.
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"So my daughter grabs her little sister off the car seat and covered her, and I thought we were OK until I realized that he lost control because the car started going to the right," Solis said.
Solis said she was able to grab the wheel and put the vehicle in park.
"And then when I turned around and I checked him, he wasn't breathing anymore," she said. "He was dead already. I called the ambulance, but it was too late."
Solis said she never saw the shooter's car and doesn't believe road rage was involved.
Meanwhile, Illinois State Police shut down traffic in the area for six hours while they gathered evidence, saying the investigation remains ongoing.
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Friday morning, Solis is remembering her husband as a hardworking man who had a flooring business to support his growing family.
"He didn't deserve this. He's a very hard-working man. He was always working," Solis said. "This is happening every day, especially to innocent people that don't deserve it like my husband... These people are."
Sources told the I-Team that this is unlikely to be a random attack due to the aggressive nature of the shooting.
Right now, investigators are working on video canvassing to figure out more details about the shooting. However, they did say three rounds were fired into one specific area of the car.
Sources also said there is no indication of road rage.
Illinois State Police data analyzed by the ABC 7 I-Team reveals that there have been 19 expressway shootings so far this year statewide. That's seven less than last year at this time, which was 26 shootings.
However, two of the shootings this year have been fatal. Last year, there were 4 deadly expressway shootings in total.