A 25-year-old man is in custody after Chicago police say he hit a woman and her daughter while driving a silver Ford Explorer on Monday night then made a U-turn and hit the woman again, killing her.
The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. in the first block of East Hubbard Street in the Near North neighborhood, police said.
Zoraleigh Ryan, 55, was walking with her 20-year-old daughter northbound on State Street in the intersection of Hubbard when a man driving a 2020 silver Ford Explorer hit both the women, police said.
The man stopped, got out of the SUV, looked at the women on the ground and then got back inside the SUV, according to a Chicago police report. He continued east on Hubbard, made a U-turn and then accelerated back toward the women on the ground.
He hit the older woman a second time, dragging her several feet, police said. Paramedics responded to the scene, where Ryan, of the 400 block of West Flamingo Drive in Chandler, Arizona, was pronounced dead at 10:44 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A white sheet was later placed over her body, which rested in the northbound lane on State, just north of Hubbard.
The driver did not stop after hitting her a second time and left the scene, police said. He continued driving north on State and circled around the block, coming back to the scene for a third time.
He continued northbound on State when a patrol officer saw the vehicle driving erratically on Grand Avenue, police said. When the officer was alerted by dispatch of the suspect’s plate number, the officer tried to curb the vehicle.
The SUV crashed through a barricade on Merchandise Mart Plaza and then tried to go through a second barricade on Wells Street, police said. The SUV hit the barricades so hard, its front hood fell off.
The SUV couldn’t go through the second barricade, and the officer got out of the squad car with a weapon drawn, but the SUV made a three-point turn and continued westbound through the plaza, escaping the officer, police said.
The man later walked into Chicago police’s Albany Park District station to report his vehicle stolen, and police took him into custody, police said. The 25-year-old is from the city’s Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
The 20-year-old woman, who is from the same Chandler, Arizona, address, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition, police said. By Tuesday morning, she was released.