Smoke was filling the SUV. First responders weren’t there yet. Despite a dispatcher’s words of caution, bystanders in Aurora broke a window in attempt to help the stranger who had crashed in their neighborhood, according to a recording of the 911 call from the incident.
Alone with a loaded gun in a Nissan Murano, 29-year-old Anthony Moore drove through a dead end and into a tree at a “high rate of speed” late at night May 3 in Aurora. The initial 911 call, obtained by the Beacon-News, shows frantic moments following the unsolved, fatal crash that disrupted a quiet West Side neighborhood.
Police have said they don’t know why Moore, of the 1900 block of Fescue Drive, was driving down Kenilworth Place or if he had been chased by someone in another vehicle, and have not determined whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.
On Friday, spokesman Dan Ferrelli said police had no new information about what led to the crash. They’re still looking for witnesses and information, he said.
“At the end of Kenilworth, someone literally just crashed into a tree at the dead end,” the caller, a woman, told a 911 dispatcher at 11:04 p.m. May 3.
As the dispatcher started to ask a question, the woman called out, “Are you OK?”
“All of the airbags are — oh my God,” the woman said, before the recording is redacted for more than a minute.
During that time, the woman found Moore. When the recording resumed, the dispatcher asked, “is he conscious at all?”
He was not, the woman said.
“I’m not trying to move him at all ma’am but it’s smoking,” the woman said, adding that she was going to break a window.
The fire department was right down the street, the dispatcher said, warning the woman to be careful.
“I don’t want anybody to get hurt and I don’t want him to be hurt any more than he already is,” the dispatcher said.
After 40 more seconds of redaction, the recording resumes with the woman saying, “don’t move.”
“OK so he’s awake now?” the dispatcher asked.
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Much of what happens next is muffled, and the woman can be heard talking to a man, whose voice is picked up on the recording.
The dispatcher asks if they’re able to open the door, and they tell her no.
While the woman is trying to find the license plate, the dispatcher again warns her about safety.
“Listen to me ma’am, this is very important,” the dispatcher says. “I don’t want anybody to do anything else. You guys step away from the vehicle, please.”
After some more redaction, the recording ends with the man saying the car was filled with smoke and they busted the window, then the dispatcher saying the fire department would be there in just a minute.
Dispatch records indicate another neighbor called to report the crash about two minutes after the woman called.
In a report, a police officer observed no brake marks present on the roadway or in the grass leading to the tree line.
Aurora Fire Department medics tried to treat Moore but were unsuccessful, and a Presence Mercy Medical Center doctor pronounced him dead at 11:29 p.m., according to reports.
Preliminary autopsy results from Kane County Coroner Rob Russell indicate Moore died of blunt force trauma from the crash, which caused head and internal injuries.