Victoria Lunacek stood outside Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin early Sunday as a police car rapidly approached, an SUV close behind.
She was on the phone with a friend who told her about a shooting at an apartment complex that had occurred less than an hour earlier.
“All of a sudden I see a squad car come flying in with an SUV following him and then a few minutes later, ambulance number one pulled up,” Lunacek, 28, told the Sun-Times.
That SUV and the ambulance carried some of the six victims from that shooting. One of those victims, a man, was killed in the shooting that occurred at a gathering early Sunday, according to Elgin police.
The man was identified as Jonathan King, 32, by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Officers responded to calls of a reported shooting in the 800 block of Congdon Avenue about 2 a.m. There, they found five people wounded, police said, and officers later were notified of a sixth person wounded.
Lunacek said she saw three of those wounded in the shooting treated at Advocate Sherman Hospital.
Shortly after the victims arrived, Lunacek said, she saw friends and family arrive. “There were people screaming, crying and holding each other,” she told the Sun-Times.
Lunacek was later on the phone with her 21-year-old sister, who was inside the hospital being treated for heart palpitations.
“I can hear her stop and take a deep breath and I can hear through the phone a woman ... … was screaming, blood-curdling screams. ... My sister and I figured someone had died,” Lunacek said.
“This was something you would see on a medical show like ‘The Good Doctor’ or ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ but not in real life.”
The conditions and ages of the victims weren’t immediately known.
“There is no reason for anything like this to happen,” Lunacek said. “Families shouldn’t have to go through this.”
Detectives are investigating. According to preliminary information, the incident appears to be isolated, police said.
Officers are asking anyone with information on the shooting to call 847-289-2600 or to send a text to 847411 and include “ELGINPD” at the start of the text.
