Josephine Camarillo was driving down Marquette Road late Wednesday when the black sedan in front of her lost control, veered onto a lawn and crashed into the porch of a small brick house.
The driver got out of the car and flagged down Camarillo. He was bleeding from his neck.
“I thought they were just crashed at first,” Camarillo later said as she stood nearby with neighbors. “None of us realized they were shot.”
Then she leaned into the car to check on the passenger. He had a gunshot wound to the chest.
“He had a big hole. … I got scared,” said Camarillo, 33. “I jumped away.”
Another neighbor leaned into the car and applied pressure on the man’s wound. Camarillo and others dialed 911 for help. For some reason, the calls kept dropping, she said.
“I was yelling, ‘We don’t need police. We need an ambulance,'” Camarillo said.
Moments earlier, about 9:55 p.m., when the car was two blocks away in the 6500 block of South Karlov Avenue, someone in a black SUV fired shots at the black sedan. A bullet grazed the 23-year-old driver’s neck. His passenger, a 24-year-old man, was shot in the chest. The passenger was taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
More Top Picks Irlen Syndrome And Autism Why The Overlap Is So Common
About a dozen neighbors gathered on the north side of Komensky and Marquette, across the street from where the car crashed. Camarillo, who has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years, spoke to every neighbor who stopped by.
“If you guys live here, be mad,” Camarillo told the crowd of people who gathered next to her. “This is our neighborhood. It’s not OK.”
Camarillo and other residents said the neighborhood has seen more crime this summer than it usually does. In August, two other people were killed in two separate shootings in West Lawn.
On Sunday, three people were shot less than a mile away in the 6200 block of South Kenneth Avenue about 7:05 p.m. A 19-year-old taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in critical condition was pronounced dead after midnight, and a 24-year-old man and 17-year-old boy each walked into Mount Sinai Hospital with leg wounds.
About a month earlier, on Aug. 1, a 28-year-old man died after being shot in the head in the 3900 block of West 68th Street about 2:10 p.m., according to police. The man was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and was pronounced dead later that day. Authorities identified him as Miguel Diaz, of the 3900 block of West 69th Street.
“This doesn’t happen in West Lawn,” Camarillo said. “It’s the first summer it’s been like this. Why? I don’t know.”
Longtime neighbor Mary Nevarez, 52, agreed with Camarillo. Nevarez said she heard four gunshots while washing dishes inside her home near 65th and Karlov.
“This is a real tight neighborhood,” Nevarez said. “This doesn’t happen here.”
Nevarez and other neighbors pointed out that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan lives in their neighborhood.
“Tell the alderman we’ve had enough,” Camarillo told other neighbors, encouraging them to contact the local officials. “Let’s blow up his phone tomorrow. We can’t let these (expletive) gangbangers take over our neighborhood.”
Camarillo said she wishes police officers conducted roll calls in the neighborhood.
“We need the National Guard here,” Nevarez said. “There is no respect for life here.”