Video Shows Moments Before SUV Plowed Into Family In Waukegan, Leaving Man Dead
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (CBS) -- Video shows the horrific scene when a driver plowed into a family in a Waukegan parking lot last week – claiming the life of a man in his 40s and hospitalizing several others.
As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reported Sunday, it happened Friday night just after a soccer game let out at the Lake County Sports Center in the 300 block of Oakwood Avenue in Waukegan.
Police late Sunday were not saying what led to a fight that preceded the incident with the sport-utility vehicle. But a lot of people were involved, and it got really ugly.
When the video starts, at least 10 people can be seen bare-knuckle brawling right outside the sports center.
"We saw, like, people running over there and start, like, fighting," said Arturo Montoya.
Then about 10 seconds into the video, a sport-utility vehicle pulls out of a spot as someone runs alongside it.
Then the fighting continues for another 25 seconds as punches are thrown, and some people fall to the ground while continuing to grapple as others join in.
That is when the SUV reappears, its driver going in reverse, with a person hanging onto the driver's side of the vehicle.
"It was scary because I was very close," Montoya said.
It's scarier still when the SUV appears to collide with a curb and possibly a pillar before pausing for about three seconds.
"The car took off," said witness Armando Gomez. "He didn't think twice about it. He just took off and left."
As the video goes on, the SUV begins to accelerate as one person in white narrowly escapes getting run over.
CBS 2 is pausing the video after that because a man in his 40s wasn't able to get out of the way in time and paid with his life.
"One of the older gentlemen – he got really run over on I guess the neck and part of the head," Gomez said.
The force of the impact was so tremendous it ripped the bumper right off the GMC truck.
After the SUV pulled out of the parking lot, even though the video appears to have been shot from inside a building, the screams of witnesses can clearly be heard.
Police said four members of a single family were hit, including a 10-year-old girl.
A short while later, a Waukegan police officer spotted an SUV with front-end damage.
Witnesses said the fight that preceded the crash might have been over a girl, but police have not confirmed that information.
Sources say the building surveillance cameras were working, so there are likely more videos that police are reviewing.
Meanwhile, Prisciliano Carranza was arrested and charged with murder. Late Sunday, he was being held on $5 million bond.
Carranza is set to appear in court on Oct. 29.