Prayers For Recovery After Woman Is Shot In The Head While Driving In Dolton
DOLTON, Ill. (CBS) -- The search intensified Thursday night for the gunman who shot a Dolton mother in the head as she was driving with four of her five children a night earlier.
As CBS 2's Chelsea Irving reported, family and friends of the victim were gathered at the University of Chicago Medical Center Thursday night, praying that she would recover.
Late Thursday, Marshia Bowman was in critical condition. Investigators were poring over surveillance video of the shooting to find who was behind it.
Bowman was driving home with her four youngest on Sibley Boulevard Wednesday night. That's was when someone in another car nearby started shooting.
She may have been caught in the crossfire when two groups started shooting at each other, but it was unclear who was the target.
Bowman was struck in the head and lost control of her minivan – crashing it into a tree near Cottage Grove Avenue.
"It's very unfortunate. It's very unfortunate," said her friend Kimberly Judkins, who talked to Bowman's oldest daughter Thursday morning. She said everyone is still in shock.
"Disbelief. It's just speechless right now," Judkins said. "It's just so unfortunate that that had to happen to her under the circumstances like that."
Witnesses said her children ran out of the car screaming for help, and that their mother had been shot.
Judkins worked with Bowman at a daycare center not far from the scene.
"That's the sad part about it because they're young," Judkins said. "Her oldest is in college now, too. It's just unfortunate they had to see that trauma."
"Those babies are going to go through some trauma, which they are going through trauma now, and if this happens to turn for the worse, they're going to be going through the worst trauma of their life," said community activist and Dolton Village Trustee Andrew Holmes.
Three hours after the Wednesday night shooting, a SWAT team raided a home near Sibley and Oak Street.
A Dolton trustee said a resident called in a tip after seeing a man with a gun running from the scene.
The SWAT team surrounded a home and used flash grenades, but a search came up empty handed.
"If you did it, just come clean about it," Judkins said. "I don't know who did it. I don't know what happened. Just come clean about it."
CBS 2 is told that several witnesses to the crash, and also some people with doorbell surveillance video, have come to police. But that still is not enough to get a good description.
