In the wake of a shooting that injured a 63-year-old man in Austin Saturday afternoon, a driver fatally struck 57-year-old Darris A. Washington and fled the scene.
At around 12:30 p.m., the 63-year-old man was on the sidewalk on the 1600 block of North Central Avenue when two people in a gray Jeep drove by and one of the occupants fired shots, striking the man in the upper right arm, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill from News Affairs. A 20-year-old man sustained minor injuries to his chin, right hand and wrist area when he was attempting to run out of a courtyard he was seated in when he heard the shots, Tennehill said. It is not known how he was injured, but he was not shot, the Sun-Times reported.
During the incident, an unknown female driver was traveling westbound on North in a Ford Escape, Tannehill said. She made a right turn, north, onto Central, and then made a U-turn, striking Washington, who was in the northbound lane of Central. The female driver continued southbound and fled the area.
Washington, who lived on the 4900 block of West Hirsch, about a mile east, was transported to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood and pronounced dead at 1:09 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. following an autopsy, his death was ruled an accident.
The 63-year-old man was taken to Stroger hospital in good condition, Tannehill said. The 20-year-old man declined medical attention.
Police have located the Ford, the Sun-Times reported, but no arrests have been made, Tannehill said. Area North Detectives are investigating.
Fatality Tracker: 2017 Chicago pedestrian and bicyclist deaths
Pedestrian: 32
Bicyclist: 3
Note: Streetsblog Chicago’s traffic death numbers represent fatal crashes on Chicago streets. The pedestrian count above is based on Chicago Police Department data for January through July released by the Chicago Department of Transportation, plus media reports for August and September. In addition to the on-street bike fatalities, on June 24 a cyclist was riding on a CTA train platform when he fell on the tracks and was fatally struck.
