Investigators are trying to reconstruct a vehicle encounter that may have stretched several blocks before a woman was critically wounded.
CHICAGO — Surveillance video from businesses in Brighton Park is emerging as a key part of the investigation into a Thursday morning shooting that critically wounded a 32-year-old woman while she traveled in a vehicle with her husband and children.
Chicago police said a gray car pulled alongside the family’s vehicle about 9:30 a.m. Oct. 22 in the 2400 block of West 47th Street and someone inside opened fire. The woman, who was a passenger, was wounded and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. The other occupants were not reported injured.
The investigation is extending beyond the immediate shooting scene as detectives try to establish where the encounter began and how long the two vehicles were near each other. Fifteenth Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez said information gathered after the shooting suggested the vehicles may have traveled for several blocks before the gunfire.
Video recorded by businesses in the area and obtained by local television stations showed a minivan being followed closely before the shooting. The recordings could help detectives establish the vehicles’ movements and identify additional cameras that captured the moments before or after the attack.
Lopez told the Chicago Sun-Times that the woman’s husband was working with investigators to locate public and private cameras along the possible route. The alderman said he believed road rage was behind the shooting, but police had not publicly established road rage as a confirmed motive.
The woman’s husband and two of their children were in the vehicle when the shooting occurred, according to Lopez. No other injuries were reported. Lopez said the victim underwent surgery after being taken to a hospital, while authorities continued to describe her condition as critical.
Investigators were also looking for the vehicle that left the area. Police said the gray car fled south on Western Avenue after the shooting. Lopez said witnesses described it as a gray four-door Toyota Scion with a rear bike rack. Authorities had not publicly named a driver or other occupant of that vehicle.
The shooting occurred during the morning on a commercial stretch of the Southwest Side, leaving investigators with the possibility that multiple businesses or traffic cameras recorded portions of the vehicles’ movements. Authorities had not publicly disclosed how many recordings they had obtained or whether any footage clearly showed the person who fired the shots.
No arrests had been announced in the latest reports. Area 1 detectives remained in charge of the investigation as police worked to reconstruct the encounter, identify the shooter and determine what led to the gunfire.
Author note: Last updated October 23, 2026.