WEST RIDGE — "Whatever you're doing," a Chicago Police officer told a very lucky 19-year-old woman from West Ridge, "don't stop doing it."
The young waitress survived, shaken but not hurt, a daylight ambush as she drove down West Arthur Avenue in West Ridge on May 17.
A lone gunman on a bike unloaded his ammunition clip into her Toyota Camry, riddling the car with bullets, including one that ended up in her headrest and another in her glovebox.
“I really thank God nothing happened to me, and I think God was watching over me, because I always pray before I go to sleep,” she said, nearly being overcome with emotion. “I go to church every single Sunday. I feel like it’s a way God showed me he appreciated all I’d given to him. And that’s what the police lady told me: Whatever you’re doing, don’t stop doing it.”
According to a police report, the gunman rode up on a bike during the middle of the day on May 17 and opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun. It happened in the 2100 block of West Arthur Avenue, between North Leavitt and Hamilton Avenues.
He started behind the car, firing at it and blowing out her rear windshield. He eventually biked past her and kept firing, according to police.
As it was happened, the woman, who does not want to be identified because she is apprehensive about being stigmatized as one of the city’s many shooting victims, thought of never seeing her family again.
“That’s what went through my head, that I’m going to die at this moment — that’s the only thing — I was like, you know, this is over, why did I have to go back for an apron? Why?” she said.
And after it was over, she thought of her kid brother.
“Usually I’m never alone, I have a younger brother, I’m always with him, I’d had him in the car earlier that day. I was just thinking thank God he wasn’t there, but I was also thinking if I die it’s going to be alone.”
The Camry took major damage from gunshots, with two bullet scars across the trunk, a bullet lodged in the rear driver’s side headrest, another stuck in the front windshield, multiple holes in the passenger side doors and a bullet that ended up in the glovebox, where police recovered it, according to the report.
A witness called police, but when they arrived, the victim was gone. In fact, she drove home to tell her parents what happened.
“The first thing I was thinking was that I need to fix this car so my parents won’t get mad or anything,” she says. “We had fixed it the day before, it had a problem with the engine that had cost like $400 dollars. And then I saw the damage the bullets had done, the broken glass, the bullet holes, and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t cover up these holes with a finger or anything.’ ”
When she got home, her mother cried as she heard what happened and her father told her the only thing that mattered was that she was not hurt or killed. The car, which is 17 years old, is gone now. The girl’s father had been pouring money into it after multiple mechanical issues, she said. And after it was shot up, detectives wanted it for their investigation. He told them just to take it and keep it.
No arrests have been made in the incident and the victim did not get a good look at the shooter, other than the fact he wore a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt.
She doesn't know why they fired on her, but suspects maybe it was a case of mistaken identity.
“It’s crazy, right in front of my house there’s a house of gangbangers,” she said. “The police are always there, ambulances are there. You know? We can get shot at any time, you never know what’s going to happen. In the blink of an eye that happened to me. It could happen to my little siblings and other kids, too.”
Life has gone on, but she is not the same.
“My life has changed ever since that. My dad has to follow me to work, I don’t like going by myself. My life is never gonna be the same anymore, it’s just not. I think I’m fine; I’m fine. I just don’t want to go through this whole life changing thing. I don’t.”
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