Update August 16 — The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified the woman who was killed as 27-year-old Sophie Allen of Orlando, Florida.
Editor’s note: CPD originally said one of the victims was a man. The department revised that information as well as the deceased victim’s age on Saturday night. Our report has been updated with the new information.
A woman is dead and another is critically injured after a driver slammed into them and then crashed near the Town Hall police station in Lakeview on Saturday afternoon, according to CPD. The driver ran from the scene and was not in custody as of late Saturday afternoon.
Officers who reviewed surveillance cameras determined the incident started when a gold BMW pulled out of a gas station at Halsted and Addison at a high speed around 12:35 p.m. The driver crashed into a Jeep, then continued speeding west on Addison until they struck the women who were in the crosswalk at Fremont Street, police said. The BMW continued traveling down the sidewalk on Fremont until it crashed into a fence, witnesses said.
The sound of tires squealing and crashing can be heard in the background of a Chicago police radio transmission as a 19th District sergeant reported seeing the BMW speeding outside the police station at 850 West Addison. Listen:
The injured women, ages 24 and 27, were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. The younger woman was pronounced dead. Police at the crash scene said the other victim was critically wounded.
Steven Graves of CBS2 tweeted video showing the SUV making a sharp, high-speed turn from Addison onto Fremont:
VIDEO: “Oh my God!”
— Steven Graves (@StevenGravesTV) August 15, 2021
A nearby home camera captured what appears to be the SUV making a sharp turn onto N Fremont. The two victims were hit soonafter. Witnesses tell me a lot neighbors jumped in to help.
More on @cbschicago at 10. pic.twitter.com/4OA9QAOlXi
Police said the driver and a passenger ran from the car. Witnesses told police that a barefoot White man got out of the crashed car’s driver’s seat and ran south to Cornelia and then west. He stood about 6’1″ tall and wore a green shirt, according to witnesses. A police officer reported seeing another man run west on Addison after the crash. He was described as a Black male with long dreads who wore a white tank top and had a black hoodie around his waist.
Police officers searched the area for both men and went door-to-door along the Wrigleyville entertainment strip with photographs of the suspected driver.
The crashed car is registered to a 30-year-old White man who lives in Old Town.
About 45 minutes after the crash, a woman who identified herself as the man’s girlfriend called 911 and said he called her from a number she didn’t recognize to say he had been carjacked at gunpoint in Lakeview, according to CPD dispatch reports. But police did not receive any calls of carjackings in the area before or after the crash.
Police records show the car’s owner was issued a new driver’s license in April. Two years ago, the man was charged with driving while his license was revoked or suspended due to a DUI, according to CPD records. He was also cited for having open alcohol in the car at the time of that arrest, the records show.
CPD’s Major Accident Investigations Unit is handling Saturday’s crash.
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