Four Dead After SUV Crashes Into Building In Cicero
CICERO, Ill. (CBS) -- Four people are dead after their vehicle crashed into a building and caught fire in Cicero early Saturday morning.
As CBS 2's Marissa Parra reported, there was not much left late Saturday from the crash – just a pile of bricks, some plywood, a sign that the flames from the crash left melted, and other charred remains of what happened.
There are people who live other side of the building, and the impact of the crash was so severe that it shook the building and woke them up.
"We were just driving up here by Central, and then we just saw like a bunch of cars," said a Jackie, a waitress at the nearby Steak'n Egger diner on Roosevelt Road. "We saw the truck. It was like in the liquor store."
Staffers at the diner had no idea what was waiting for them around the corner as they were heading into work.
"Something's on fire – or like, anybody was hurt? Like, what's going on what happened – like, is everybody okay?" said another waitress, Perla.
Just around 3 a.m., the sport-utility vehicle with four people inside slammed into a building at Roosevelt Road and Central Avenue. The vehicle had been headed east on Roosevelt Road when it veered off the road.
When police arrived, the car was engulfed in flames. Police managed to get three of the victims out of the vehicle, but no one in the SUV survived.
"My manager said she got here a little earlier than us, and she said that there was family here," Perla said. "It was horrible, because there was this girl that was like screaming, 'My sister!' and she came in to use the bathroom."
"Poor family," Jackie said.
Cicero police and investigators late Saturday were trying to piece together how and why the car ended up in the building.
The impact was so severe that it sent cracks up the wall of the building. The shock woke up the people who live inside.
It also shifted the building just enough that Frank Gandah of Two for One Liquor, at 5607 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Cicero, could not even get through the front door to his business.
Gandah went through the back of his liquor store to find bottles upon bottles tossed on the ground. When he first arrived Saturday morning, he thought the store had been looted.
"You're talking about 50, 60,000 dollars here," Gandah said. "I got a lot of money over here."
And now, there has been a loss of four lives.
"Every time that I'm going to pass, I'm going to remember, like, 'Oh, like, they're not here anymore,'" Perla said.
"My condolences to the family, and like, sorry for your loss," Jackie said. "I know that it's like Christmas is coming up, and it must be hard for them to lose like their family members like so close to a like a happy, I guess, time."
Late Saturday, three of the victims were identified as Corey D. Williams, 23; Anquanisha Murdock, 24; and Julsef Fleming, 23 – all of the South Austin neighborhood. The fourth victim, who was driving, remained unidentified late Saturday.
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