ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (WLS) -- A United States Postal Service worker was shot in Elk Grove Village Monday night and police are now searching for the shooter.
Elk Grove Village police said the postal worker was driving eastbound on Brantwood Avenue near Smethwick Lane at around 6 p.m. Monday night when he was shot from a distance.
The postal worker, who was shot multiple times, was able to get out of his vehicle and call for help, police said. He was taken to Lutheran General Hospital for treatment, according to police. He underwent surgery Tuesday and he is alert and his condition has stabilized.
ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke with two of the neighbors who helped keep him alive.
One woman, who did not want to be identified, said the man had just delivered her mail.
"I mean, we're talking five minutes of him putting the mail in the box and us backing out of the driveway," she said. "He came up and cut us off and just jumped out of the car and said to call the police, that he had been shot."
The woman's husband, a former Chicago Police Department homicide detective, called for help.
"He jumped out of the car and I got out of the car and that time he collapsed on our front lawn," the woman said. "We could see, you know, he had been shot in the neck."
Maria Pignato, another neighbor, came out to help after she heard the shots. She and the other woman talked to the postal worker, trying to keep him awake before an ambulance arrived.
"So I just went up to him and held his hand. I asked him what his name was, asked him if he had a family," Pignato said. "I was just trying to talk to him to help keep him conscious because it was pretty bad."
Police were able to collect evidence left behind at the scene and are investigating witness reports of a dark sports-utility vehicle driving away from the scene right after the shooting, according to Elk Grove police Chief Charles Walsh.
"We don't know a motive at this time or if it was an intended target," Walsh said. "We're trying to piece through that now with witnesses."
Police are asking residents for any security video footage that may have captured the shooting. Anyone with information is asked to contact Investigator McIntyre at 847-357-4100.
This is the first known shooting in Elk Grove Village in nearly two years, police said. There will be an increased presence of officers in the neighborhood throughout the day and more patrols in order to make residents feel safe.